Per the suggestions ...

Use of an "=" could be utilized
Unfortunately, this would break the ability for our search bar to also do loose matches around the "typed search term"
(e.g. "Broadway &" query will not return "Broadway & Commercial"

Use of "%" wildcard to replace noted special character
Unfortunately, the results will then be too varied. Any characters will be up for substitution.
(e.g. "C&R" query will then also return "car", "candor", corridor", etc.)

*** Could we confirm if there is an appropriate way for special characters to be passed and recognized as-is?

The above suggested workarounds would return either too limited results or too varied results.