Chicken Out Rotesserie's Bethesda Avenue location closed this week. (Photo: TBD Staff)

Bethesda Row has a new vacancy now that Chicken Out Rotisserie closed Wednesday, and whoever ends up filling the restaurant space at 4893 Bethesda Ave. may have to contend with some high rental rates.

The local chain announced early Wednesday morning that it discontinued its lease at the Bethesda location, and vice president of marketing Renie Freedman tells us it was due to an increase in rent.

"They were just bringing up the rate so high that we could just not do it," she says. "It was a great store. We loved being in Bethesda."

None of the chain's 12 other stores are closing, and Freedman says the company will look for another possible space in Bethesda.

"We will not be gone from Bethesda forever," she says.

The Bethesda restaurant actually did quite well during its nearly 20-year run, so much so that the chain expanded the restaurant space about 10 years ago.