Philly-area businessman buys Boston Market restaurant chain

A Bucks County real estate investor and restaurant operator is the new owner of the distressed rotisserie chicken chain Boston Market.

Jignesh (Jay) Pandya of Newtown acquired the chain for an undisclosed sum this week, according to a statement from seller Sun Capital Partners, a private equity firm based in Boca Raton, Fla.

Pandya did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Emails to Pandya’s lawyer, Valentino DiGiorgio III, who until June was head of Pennsylvania’s Republican Party, also went unanswered.

In 2017, Bloomberg reported that Boston Market could sell for about $400 million.

Boston Market operates more than 300 casual home-style restaurants that serve roasted chicken and prime rib. The national chain employs roughly 5,500 people, Pandya said in a news release. Neither Pandya nor Sun Capital said how the deal was financed.

Boston Market closed about 10% of its restaurants last summer due to “store under-performance.” Its chief executive officer, Frances Allen, departed soon after.

Pandya once owned 50 regional Pizza Hut outlets through his company, the Rohan Group, and several subsidiary limited liability companies that included Ronak Foods, Pandya Restaurants and JNP Foods.

Pizza Hut currently is suing Pandya in federal court, alleging that he had failed to pay millions in franchise fees.

In recent months, Pandya and his son have begun to convert many of those former pizzerias into HNT Chicken restaurants.