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We have a bit more information about what the building would look like, but still don’t know the name of the restaurant that wants to move in. During their Wednesday, Aug. 7 meeting, Farmville town council members received an update on the South Main Street project.

The town planning commission heard and approved the site plan during their July meeting. To be clear, this doesn’t need to go to the town council, because restaurants are a use allowed by right in the highway commercial district. 

This new business will take over at 2004 South Main Street, the site of the former Ken’s Car Coop. Representing Stonefield, J. Reid Cooksey told the commission last month the plan is to demolish the existing structure, then build a one-story, 2,325 square foot restaurant with a pick-up window. 

Town Manager Dr. Scott Davis told council members the proposal does meet all of Farmville’s zoning requirements. The plan would be for it to have inside seating, a patio area with some seating there and then a pickup window as well. Farmville’s rules require a business this size to have 20 parking spaces. The business, meanwhile, is planning 26. 

As part of the plan, the entrance to the site from South Main Street will be closed, replaced with a sidewalk. There will instead be just one way to enter, on the left side of the property at Bowling Lane. And for those nearby, concerned about seeing all the construction, there’s a wooded area to the left of the property. The idea is for that to act as a buffer between this planned Farmville restaurant and the building that fronts Spring Valley Road. 

 

When would it open?
So when will it open for business? Currently, the construction timeline is set to wrap up by early 2025. And before you ask, no, there’s not a specific restaurant mentioned yet, in either the site plan or anything else submitted to the town. 

“This is a national chain, we know that much,” Davis told the council. “(However) we don’t know definitively what (chain) that is.” 

At the commission meeting, Cooksey said his clients would love to break ground on the project by the end of the year. The goal would be to turn it over to a tenant, that previously mentioned restaurant chain, by spring or summer of 2025.

Mayor Brian Vincent wanted to make it clear, before anyone comes to town officials with a wish list of who should move in, that the council doesn’t get to decide which restaurant gets chosen as a tenant.