Chick-fil-A files for permit in Henderson

Have a hankering for some crispy waffle potato fries and a juicy slab of fried chicken breast on a toasted, buttered bun?

Sit tight: Soon, you might not have to leave the Las Vegas Valley to indulge.

Fast-food chicken chain Chick-fil-A has requested permits from Henderson to build a restaurant at Stephanie Street and Warm Springs Road.

It may be a while — the Georgia-based company would have to demolish the vacant Cox Communications office on the parcel and build an eatery from scratch. But Chick-fil-A has taken the first step in the construction process, formally seeking a design review and conditional-use approval from the city.

The request is on the agenda of the city’s June 11 Planning Commission meeting.

City spokesman Keith Paul told the Review-Journal in April that the site is zoned appropriately, but a developer would need a use permit for a drive-thru.

“The plan would be to remove the Cox building and put up the Chick-fil-A,” Paul said.

Chick-fil-A has not formally announced that it’s coming to Southern Nevada. Its website lists planned openings in Georgia, Texas, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Virginia.

Spokeswoman Kim Hardcastle said Wednesday that the company could not verify the new location because it is only in the permitting stage and it has not yet been approved.

But Hardcastle said the chain is constantly looking at possible new locations.

“We would very much like to serve the communities of Las Vegas, and while we are actively seeking the first few sites in Nevada, we have no locations to confirm just yet,” she said.

Valley Chick-fil-A fans have long pined for a Southern Nevada outpost. The company has been the subject of several local rumors, most prominently the notion that conservative company founder S. Truett Cathy avoided the Silver State because of his distaste for legalized prostitution and gambling.

Chick-fil-A has restaurants in nearly every state surrounding Nevada, including California, Arizona, Utah and Idaho.

When Cathy died in September at 93, locals wondered if Las Vegas might become a more palatable expansion prospect for Chick-fil-A.

Asked after Truett’s death about the prospects for a local Chick-fil-A, a spokeswoman said the company is “always evaluating potential new locations for restaurant expansion” and was “excited about continued expansion into more markets in the Western U.S.”

Chick-fil-A opened its first restaurant at an Atlanta shopping mall in 1967 and has posted 47 straight years of sales growth.

Financial services consultant Janney said in 2014 that the chain consumed 26 percent of the nation’s fast-food chicken sector in 2013, up from 9 percent in 1999 and ahead of KFC’s 22 percent.

Chick-fil-A has more than 1,900 locations in 42 states. Companywide sales totaled nearly $6 billion in 2014.

Contact Jennifer Robison at jrobison@reviewjournal.com. Find @J_Robison1 on Twitter.