Site Plan Approved for Wheeling Dunkin’ Donuts
Photo by Eric Ayres Trending
Members of the Wheeling Planning Commission expressed concerns about the limited size of the property where the proposed Dunkin' Donuts location is planned on National Road, but nonetheless, its site plan was approved by a majority vote Monday night.
Heartland Restaurant Group LLC of Pittsburgh plans to open a new Dunkin' store at the site of the former Hardee’s restaurant at 855 National Road. The old fast-food restaurant building is expected to be demolished, and a new 2,000-square foot coffee shop is expected to be constructed there.
Dan Orie, vice president of Heartland Restaurant Group, appeared before the planning commission Monday night for a site plan review, along with Kayla Hiner of KDH Consulting Engineers of Greensburg, Pennsylvania.
"We’re a locally based Pittsburgh company, and we have Dunkin' Donuts in 11 counties, with the closest one being in Moundsville," Orie said, adding that they also operate stores in Weirton, Wintersville and Steubenville, along with a number in Pennsylvania. "If things go well, we’ll add Wheeling to our portfolio."
Orie noted that about 60-65% of the Dunkin' business - specializing in coffee, donuts and other items from the restaurant’s full menu - are from drive-through customers.
"If anyone is familiar with Dunkin' - or frankly most of the fast food, quick-serve restaurants - indoor seating is less and less a priority," Orie said. "We have 16 seats at this particular site, which is actually a fair number of seats."
Plans for the new restaurant call for a small, 440-square-foot dining area, but more of a focus on the drive-through experience. Designs for this site call for a pay window and pickup window at the drive-through, along with an "on-the-go" lane and window for customers who order on the app to bypass any wait in the traditional drive-through line.
The current Hardee’s site has a larger parking lot which is situated on three separate parcels - one of which has a separate owner and is not part of the plans for the Dunkin Donuts development. Orie said they were confident that the operation will do well on the site, noting that the typical customer time on the property is about 120 seconds. He added that the largest volume of customers will be in the morning.
"We have sites that are substantially smaller than this," he said. "Speed of service is everything."
"I’m not 100% sure that we’re not trying to squeeze too much into this smaller space here," Planning Commission Member Howard Monroe said, who added, however, that staff had noted that a lot of legwork had been done in advance with the developers and both preliminary a final approval of the site plan had been recommended. "Some of this makes me a little antsy, but I think that it’s probably appropriate."
Monroe moved to approve the site plan, and while a majority of members agreed to support the plan, fellow planning commission member Michael Baum also expressed concerns - although he also voted to approve the site plan.
"I imagine this business is going to be busiest during the time of the day that National Road is at the highest volume of traffic," Baum said. "I have concerns about the parking lot and getting people in and out of there appropriately without causing major congestion issues.
Architect and planning commission member Christina Schessler, who noted a number of concerns about the plans as presented, voted against the site plan. However, the rest of the members voted for approval, pending a green light on a number of variances that are scheduled to be presented before the Wheeling Board of Zoning Appeals on Thursday.
Officials noted that Tim Horton’s is just a few doors away from this location, a Sheetz is nearby and another national coffee chain is planning to build a site across the street from this site.
"We’re very comfortable competing with them," Orie said, who noted that it is not uncommon to see a Burger King and a McDonald’s restaurant located at the same intersection anywhere in the country that do good business. "It does work. There are no Dunkin' Donuts in this market. Some of our strongest stores are right next to a Starbucks. If we had any concerns, we wouldn’t be here."