FAYETTEVILLE -- Texas hamburger lovers rejoice.
Northwest Arkansas is poised to go from zero to four Whataburger restaurants in the span of just a few months.
Fayetteville Planning Commission
In other business Monday, planning commissioners:
• Recommended the City Council approve two changes to city code — one dealing with single-family infill standards and the other involving minimum street standards;
• Discussed, but tabled, two other policy changes. One would remove minimum parking standards in all nonresidential areas. The other would eliminate a section of code requiring owners of bed and breakfasts to renew permits with the city each year.
Source: Staff report
The region's first Whataburger -- not to be confused with Feltner's Whatta-Burger in Russellville -- is scheduled to open Monday at 1956 W. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., according to a sign posted on the property last week.
Hiring has begun for a second restaurant on Pleasant Crossing Drive in Rogers, and planning commissioners in Springdale and Fayetteville approved plans for two more restaurants within the past week.
Representatives for the San Antonio-based fast-food chain, known for its hamburgers, french fries and often its orange and white A-frame building design, did not respond to questions about their motivation for moving into Northwest Arkansas. But it's clear they've seen something in the market here.
"Whataburger is excited about the opportunity and potential of bringing a new restaurant to this community," James Turcotte, senior vice president for Whataburger Real Estate, said in a prepared statement when the first Fayetteville restaurant was being planned last year.
Before it was built, Arkansas had just one Whataburger -- in Texarkana. The privately held company has more than 770 locations in nine other states, including Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. It was founded in Corpus Christi, Texas, in 1950.
The newest Fayetteville location, approved Monday, will require tearing down two commercial buildings at the northeast corner of College Avenue and Joyce Boulevard. The buildings have housed Boost Mobile, Game X Change, Oreck Vacuums, Liberty Tax Service, Cash For Gold and Diva Nails, but all of those businesses have since closed.
According to a site plan submitted by Crafton Tull and approved by the Fayetteville Planning Commission Monday, the northern half of the 2-acre property will be developed with the drive-through restaurant. Another unidentified development is planned on the southern half of the land, which, according to Washington County property records, has been owned by Cherry Ridge LLC of El Dorado since 2011.
Whataburger developers will be required to add sidewalks, streetlights and street trees along both College Avenue and Frontage Road, which runs behind the restaurant site.
They also plan to expand an existing driveway on College Avenue that services the One Corporate Square office building, 4058 N. College Ave.
"I think they've done a really good job," Commissioner Tracy Hoskins said Monday.
NW News on 07/14/2015