Monday, August 27, 2012

New Zaxby's in Chamblee May Finally Open...Soon

The long delayed Zaxby's restaurant in the outpacel of Lowe's on Peachtree Boulevard is finally making progress towards opening.  The restaurant broke ground last October, but work all butceased shortly after the first of the year.  As you can see from the photo, the structure is built but little else has been done.  

I announced the restaurant's plans for opening back in 2010, shortly after announcing their planned north Buckhead location.  The north Buckhead location opened last summer, and was followed by another new location on North Druid Hills, in front of North DeKalb Mall, a few weeks ago.  

As I live not far from the Chamblee / Brookhaven ( Chamhaven ) Zaxby's, I'd kept an eye on the space as the structure sat dormant.  I contacted Zaxby's corporate in March and was given little to work with, only that as long as the coming soon sign remained visible in front, the restaurant would eventually open.  

After a few more months passed, further research  turned up new opening complications.  

1. Decatur First was the original issuer of the loan for the construction of the restaurant. Just days after the construction began, Decatur First failed and its assets were eventually taken over by Atlanta-based Fidelity Bank. 

2.  Sources tell me that construction of the restaurant was delayed for an extended period of time early on, due to the fact that the ground under and around the restaurant was more difficult to break up and deal with than expected.  Apparently, special equipment had to be brought in to deal with what was described as "solid rock" beneath the ground in areas needing to be disturbed to construct the restaurant's foundation.  This special equipment came at a higher cost than originally budgeted, and thus the franchisee had to apply for a larger loan from, now, a new bank.

3.  I was also told that Zaxby's may have changed or in some way altered its franchise agreement and possibly made it more difficult for franchisees to apply for SBA loans.  This still is a little foggy and it remains unclear to me how serious this issue was in the slowdown at the restaurant site.  

I stopped by the restaurant this past weekend and saw work being done on the interior of the restaurant and brick staged for completing the exterior.  I spoke briefly with a contractor on site and was informed the restaurant should be open with 45 days.  

I was under the impression that this restaurant would be located in the new City of Brookhaven but an  observant reader brought to my attention that is will in fact be in the city of Chamblee.  

A great map showing the boundaries of the new city can be found here.

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

"When it does open it may very well be the first restaurant to open in the city of Brookhaven"

Or it will absolutely not be considering it is in the city limits of Chamblee.

Get a map.

Atlantan99 said...

Hello @Anon,

You are totally right! I was mistaken. I have verified the boundaries via a map and changed the post to reflect my new understanding.

Thank you for bringing this to my attention and for reading the blog.

drummerpop said...

FINALLY!!!

Now can you illuminate us in regards to the digging behind Cinebistro/beside Costco in Town Brookhaven? And when will digging begin for the Costco gas station (rumored to be arriving soon @ the TB location. Great work on your blog, btw.

Atlantan99 said...

@drummerpop,

The digging behind Cinebistro / Costco is for a second wave of residential units. The units were planned originally then put on hold, and now back on with strong demand in the area.

You, me and the rest of the city is waiting on that darn gas station! I hear "by December" at this point but who really knows.

Thanks for the kind words on the blog and for reading it.

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