Tenders to rebuild to make way for new Cornelius hospital

CORNELIUS, N.C. (FOX 46 CHARLOTTE) – With the announcement of Atrium Health’s plan to build a new hospital in Cornelius at the corner of Westmoreland Road and Highway 21 comes questions about what will happen to beloved chicken joint Tenders, located at the planned construction site.

Tenders, the inspiration and eventual flagship location of PDQ, said they will need to demolish their original building, but have acquired a new plot of land a few feet away to rebuild.

While they have no official timeline for the rebuild, they said they hope to keep their original restaurant open while building the new one to avoid having to stop operations.

“It’s nothing to worry about us, though. We have across the street secured, so there won’t be any shortage of chicken for the community,” said PDQ Regional Director Mike Keller.

Tenders has been serving fresh chicken in their current location for more than a decade. The physical building has been there far longer.

“This is obviously the bones of the start of it, but I will say, when we go through our building plans, we are going to try to capture what this building has done for us. The look will stay the same, but it will obviously be newer,” said Keller.

Atrium Health hopes to have their hospital open by 2024, so Tenders said they will likely break ground on their new location some point in 2022.