Norwich – An Edison, N.J., developer hopes to open a Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen chicken restaurant in the former Friendly’s Restaurant building at 620 W. Main St. in December depending on approval of pending permit applications.

Ed Baksh, project manager for Norwich Chicken LLC, said the Norwich restaurant would be the fourth Popeyes restaurant in Connecticut owned by New Jersey-based Parikh Network, a firm owned by brothers Amish and Ashish Parikh that runs about 95 Popeyes throughout the Northeast and northern Midwest. The company’s other Connecticut locations are in New Britain, Manchester and Hamden.

The only other Popeyes in the region is on Colman Street in New London, owned by a different franchise.

The Commission on the City Plan is scheduled to review Norwich Chicken LLC’s application at its Aug. 18 meeting at 7 p.m. The project does not require a public hearing.

The plans call for renovations to the former Friendly’s Restaurant building, which was gutted by fire in November 2010, renovated and reopened in 2011 and then closed in 2012 in the company’s bankruptcy proceedings.

The new plan calls for extensive renovations -- “the outside will look totally different,” Baksh said -- along with a drive-through lane and 26 parking spaces.

Project attorney William Sweeney said he is pleased to propose a project that will take a long-vacant building and put it to new use along the busy West Main Street commercial strip.

Baksh said the firm has wanted to expand into Norwich for a while, and was looking for the right location.

“We really wanted to get something in that area,” Baksh said. “It’s an up and coming community, it’s growing. It took a while to find the right spot, and we were lucky to find this spot at the shopping center.”

The former Friendly’s building was purchased by Simon Konover Development Corp. for $1 million in October 2012, some 10 months after the restaurant closed. At the time, company officials said they had hoped to secure a new restaurant tenant. Norwich Chicken LLC has a lease with Konover for the property. A Konover affiliate also owns the adjacent Marcus Plaza shopping center.

c.bessette@theday.com

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