Raising Cane’s Sues Boston Landlord Over Lease Termination and Alleged Odor Nuisance
Raising Cane's has filed a lawsuit against the landlord of one of its Boston locations, alleging that the property owner is attempting to terminate a long-term commercial lease by characterizing the chicken-finger fast-food restaurant’s normal cooking smells as a legal nuisance. The dispute involves a restaurant in the Back Bay that opened in 2022 and operates under a lease scheduled to run through 2037, according to court filings.
The location in dispute operates out of a roughly 100-year-old mixed-use building. The complaint states that tensions arose after upper-floor areas were renovated and leased to office tenants, who later complained about odors from the restaurant below. Raising Cane’s argues that the complaints followed changes to the building’s configuration rather than any change in how the restaurant operates.
According to the lawsuit, the chicken-finger fast-food restaurant spent more than $200,000 attempting to address the concerns. The company states that it implemented measures intended to improve ventilation and limit the spread of cooking smells within the building. Despite those efforts, the complaint alleges that the landlord continued to characterize the odors as offensive and informed the restaurant operator in January that it intended to terminate the lease on that basis.
Raising Cane’s contends that the odor dispute is tied to a broader disagreement over the use of space within the building. The complaint alleges that the landlord sought to pressure the fast-food chain into waiving a lease provision granting it exclusive rights to operate as the only chicken-focused restaurant on the premises. Court filings state that the landlord entered discussions to lease an adjacent space, previously occupied by Starbucks, to another restaurant operator, Panda Express, a move the lawsuit claims conflicted with those exclusivity protections and coincided with the threatened lease termination.
At the center of the case is how nuisance law applies in a commercial leasing context. A nuisance generally refers to a condition that substantially and unreasonably interferes with the use and enjoyment of property. Courts often distinguish between conditions that are inherent to a permitted use and those that exceed what the parties reasonably expected when a lease was signed. When a lease expressly allows restaurant operations, cooking odors are typically treated as a foreseeable consequence of that use rather than an unexpected intrusion.
Raising Cane’s argues that the smell of fried chicken is inseparable from a chicken-finger fast-food restaurant and was anticipated when the lease was executed. The complaint states that the landlord accepted those conditions at the outset and cannot later treat them as grounds for eviction simply because other tenants object. Whether odors rise to the level of a legal nuisance often depends on their intensity, frequency, and whether they exceed what would ordinarily be expected from a permitted restaurant operation.
The lawsuit also implicates the covenant of quiet enjoyment, an implied obligation in commercial leases that allows tenants to operate without unreasonable interference. Actions that materially disrupt a tenant’s ability to use leased space as agreed, including efforts to terminate a lease based on conditions the lease permits, can raise questions about whether that obligation has been breached. The fast food chain claims that the landlord’s conduct has interfered with its ability to operate under the terms of the lease.
Exclusivity provisions form another key component of the dispute. These clauses are common in retail and mixed-use properties and are intended to protect tenants from direct competition within the same building. The complaint states that Raising Cane’s negotiated exclusivity rights as part of its lease and relied on those protections when committing to the location and investing in build-out and mitigation efforts. Courts generally enforce such provisions when they are clearly stated and negotiated between commercial parties.
Raising Cane’s is a national restaurant chain specializing in chicken-finger meals, with hundreds of locations across the United States. The company has expanded rapidly in recent years, often operating in dense urban markets and mixed-use buildings where restaurant activity coexists with offices and retail tenants.
The dispute is laid out in a civil lawsuit that asks the court to determine whether the lease permits termination based on cooking odors that the restaurant claims were foreseeable and contractually allowed. No court has yet ruled on the claims, and the case remains pending.
