The Newberry City Commission is poised to take up a development plan for a commercial building that would be home to one and possibly two new restaurants across from Oak View Middle School.
The commission will consider the plan Monday after its regular meeting, when developer JBrown Professional Group will give a presentation to the Board of Adjustment, which includes commissioners and key city staff.
According to the board agenda, the application is for a 4,500-square-foot commercial building, which would include a drive-through restaurant and “related site development.”
“We’re very excited,” Newberry Mayor Jordan Marlowe said in a phone interview. “We don’t have a listing of what the drive-through would be, but we do believe it would be a local chain.”
The proposed site for the two-tenant building is the corner of US-27 and SW 4th Avenue, which is a vacant lot in between The Blend coffee shop and Oak View Middle School.
Marlowe said Newberry currently has nine restaurants with only one drive-through, so getting another one is significant.
“Given the location of that site, the proximity of the middle school and high school, and how many kids we have that love to swing through and grab a burger, I think it would be a huge success,” Marlowe said.
Marlowe said he hopes to find out Monday what the drive-through restaurant will be. He said plans for that side are further along, but he expects the other side of the commercial building will eventually also be some kind of eatery.
Marlowe said he anticipates a positive reception from the board, although traffic flow will be a topic of conversation.
“The only question we’ll have is making sure the business, whoever it is, will be able to get all of the traffic off of 27 without backing anything up onto 27,” he said. “I think it will be a very popular addition to the town. We want to make sure they’re as good as Chick-fil-A at getting people in and out.”
According to Marlowe, the permitting stage will take about six months, followed by a building phase that would likely put the restaurant opening in 2024.
“I would hope, once they have their permits, they could be open for business within a year,” Marlowe said.
