Raising Cane’s is planning to spend roughly $1.75 million to bulldoze a former medical marijuana dispensary on North Dale Mabry Highway and replace it with its first restaurant inside Tampa city limits. The chicken chain intends to demolish the Sunnyside dispensary at 1902 N. Dale Mabry Highway, an 8,126-square-foot building, and put up a 2,794-square-foot restaurant with a drive-thru, mobile-order pickup window, and outdoor dining — roughly one-third the size of what’s coming down.
The project, first reported by Tampa Bay Business and Wealth, would mark Raising Cane’s fifth location in the Tampa Bay region and its first inside Tampa proper. The chain has already expanded into Clearwater, St. Petersburg, and Lutz, with locations on Gulf to Bay Boulevard and East Bay Drive in Clearwater, State Road 56 in Lutz, which opened in January 2025, and Tyrone Boulevard North in St. Petersburg, which opened in August 2025, according to 99.5 QYK.
The North Dale Mabry site itself carries some commercial history. The building slated for demolition opened in August 2022 as multistate operator Cresco Labs’ first Sunnyside medical marijuana dispensary in Tampa, operating as a licensed cannabis treatment center next to the Walters Crossing shopping center, according to Durée & Company.
A Prime Pad Site Near Midtown and the Airport
It’s easy to see the appeal of the location. North Dale Mabry Highway carries an estimated 57,500 vehicles a day, per LoopNet’s listing for the property. The dispensary is near Tampa International Airport. That kind of visibility doesn’t come cheap — the same report notes North Dale Mabry ranks among the densest commercial strips in Hillsborough County…