When the Tax Abatements Are Slim, but They Still Bring the Chicken

Turns out you can open a restaurant in Athens without a million dollar handshake. Who knew? Slim Chickens proved it. No abatements, no incentives, just pure poultry confidence. Somewhere, a few developers are clutching their rebate forms wondering how that happened.

The buzz has been real. Folks are downright Slimthusiastic! And honestly, who can blame them? It is crispy, it is southern, and it is something new that did not cost the taxpayers a dime. There always seems to be a line around the building.

Slim Chickens is an emerging national chain that started in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and has grown into a major player in the fast-casual space. The brand now has more than two hundred forty-five locations across the United States and has a large line of new restaurants in development both here and abroad. Expansion is underway in places like the United Kingdom, Kuwait, and Germany, with plans to open hundreds more in the coming decade. In the U.S., Slim Chickens is strategically growing its footprint from small towns to major metro markets.

So when one landed in Athens, it is a big deal. Yet it came with NO abatement, NO rebate, and NO financial incentives attached. Still, that did not stop city officials from showing up all smiles at the ribbon cutting. The same ribbon cutting that WAFF and other outlets covered as part of the launch of The Shoppes at Lindsay Lane, a new retail center owned by Leeland Ventures. Because who does not love a free photo op with some fried chicken and a booming national brand?

Now here is where it gets extra crispy. According to reports from WAFF and 256 Today, Leeland Ventures broke ground at The Shoppes at Lindsay Lane in Spring 2025, anchoring the development with Slim Chickens and First National Bank. Yet behind their shiny new chicken spot in Athens sits an empty shopping center still collecting dust.

Funny how some developments seem to get all the golden eggs while others cannot even get a nod from City Hall.

Leeland Ventures, the group behind that empty stretch, might not be on the “shop-local” preferred developer list. You know, the list of who gets invited to secret abatements meetings. Because around here, if you are not one of those developers, it seems the welcome mat gets rolled up pretty quick.

So hats off to Slim Chickens for choosing Athens anyway with zero incentives, zero abatements, and all the confidence in their chicken. Proof that with Athens being the fastest growing city in the state, we are desirable enough. Large corporate chains want to be here!

Now, if only a few of those empty properties could get the same shot. But maybe that is too slim of a chance.

The Secret Sauce: Who Really Gets the Incentives?

If you skim through Athens’ last few years of tax abatement records, a pattern starts to sizzle. The incentives are not really about the businesses at all. They are about who builds for them.

Leeland Ventures, the developer behind Slim Chickens and The Shoppes at Lindsay Lane, has developed across Madison County, with shopping centers and retail spaces under their belt. Yet in Athens, there is no record of them receiving a single tax break for Slim Chickens. That alone deserves applause.

Now look at the numbers from the city’s own records.

Texas Roadhouse and 7 Brew: a seventeen million dollar project with up to nine hundred thousand dollars in city tax rebates to the developer.
Five Guys and Nothing Bundt Cakes: seven and a half million dollars with a rebate cap of one hundred eighty thousand.
Food City: up to two point four million dollars in city sales-tax rebates.

The pattern is clear. The abatement does not usually go to the small business with the sign out front. It goes to the developer LLC that knows the right people and speaks the right language inside City Hall.

Limestone County’s financial audit backs that up. In 2023, local jurisdictions handed out more than seven point five million dollars in abatements, and in 2022, another one million on top of that. A closer look shows many of those deals trace back to the same familiar developers who always seem to have a seat at the table.

Meanwhile, other builders and small business owners struggle to get a meeting, let alone an incentive.

Six months later, the Leeland Ventures site still sits empty. Prime property off Lindsay Lane collecting dust while other developments all over Athens are filling up fast. It is hard to believe a location that good has no takers. Maybe the problem is not the property. Maybe it is who is, or is not, holding the keys. Because in Athens, location might be everything, but connection still seems to be the real currency.

Editor’s Note: All information cited in this article comes from public records, council minutes, and publicly available reporting from WAFF and 256 Today. The Limestone Lowdown believes transparency is best served hot, just like good fried chicken.