Qdoba signs first midtown location.

Qdoba Mexican Grill, one of the country's fastest growing restaurant chains, is planning to make New York City one of its strongholds.

The company, which opened its first Manhattan store earlier this summer on 34th Street in Murray Hill, has just signed a lease for its first prime

But that may just be the "tip of the burrito" as far as Qdoba's presence in New York is concerned. According to the company's exclusive Manhattan retail broker, Andrew Mandell of Ripco Real Estate Corp., his firm is intensifying its search for Odoba locations all over the city.

"It's possible we'll be helping our client open as many as 15 to 20 Mexican Grills in Manhattan alone in the very near future." stated Mandell.

"We're very excited about our Third Avenue location," asserted Peder T. Kruger, Qdoba Restaurant Corp's vice president of Real Estate Development, "because it represents our first corporate Mexican Grill in midtown Manhattan and it met all of our requirements in terms of visibility, traffic, population density and proximity to transit. We now have a number of other locations under contract and an exciting inventory of potential sites to satisfy our aggressive build-out strategy for Manhattan."

Founded in 1955 with the opening of its first restaurant in Denver, the company, which specializes in innovative fast-casual Mexican fare, today has grown to nearly 400 Qdoba Mexican Grills from coast to coast. Qdoba was acquired by publicly traded Jack In the Box, Inc. in 2003.

Founded in 1991, Manhattan and Long Island-based Ripco is one of the largest real estate companies of its kind specializing exclusively in retail brokerage. It serves the entire metropolitan region including the five boroughs, Long Island, lower New York State, Connecticut and New Jersey.