Several new businesses will be popping up in the city of Battle Ground over the next year or so, with one fast food restaurant opening within the next couple of months.
A Dairy Queen restaurant will be open soon in the building that previously housed the joint Kentucky Fried Chicken/A&W, located at 1602 W. Main St. Owned by Rod and Karen Ribelin, the Battle Ground restaurant will be run by their son, Jon Ribelin. As long as the Dairy Queen equipment that the crew is waiting on arrives in a timely manner, Jon said they are hoping to have the restaurant open in early May.
“We’re doing the tile work right now, we’ll start painting outside soon,” Jon said. “It’s a big transformation, we had to gut it all and clean it.”
Rod and Karen Ribelin own several Dairy Queen restaurants in the area, including Woodland, Kelso and also the older walk-up restaurant in downtown Vancouver. Jon said they started talking about a possible Dairy Queen in Battle Ground around October/November of last year. However, he said the first of this year was really when the talk of a Battle Ground restaurant became more of a reality.
After starting to take applications for the Battle Ground restaurant just a couple of weeks ago, Jon said he’s already received about 50 applications at the Woodland store for the Battle Ground location and about 25 more from people turning them in at the soon-to-be new location. Jon said he will hire about 60 people at the new restaurant. Dairy Queen employees must be at least 16 years old to work in the restaurant.
“I’m really excited to start training people and start people out from scratch,” Jon said. “We grew up in Dairy Queens and it’ll be great to become a part of the Battle Ground community.”
Wendy’s
An application was submitted to the city of Battle Ground and approved to construct a Wendy’s restaurant in Mill Creek Town Center, near the Battle Ground Walmart. The new restaurant will be located at 1010 SW Scotton Way, at the Northwest corner of Southwest Scotton Way and State Route 503.
According to the application submitted to the city, if building and planning permits are issued within a reasonable time, construction on the new Wendy’s could begin as early as July 1, 2015. The building will be constructed in approximately 100 calendar days and it is anticipated the store will open around the middle of October 2015.
Proposed hours of operation are typically 10 a.m.-11 p.m., seven days a week. On occasion, if business permits, the drive thru window may be open later. The proposed building will be 3,266 square feet.
AutoZone
An application to build an AutoZone auto parts and accessories store was also submitted to the city of Battle Ground and approved. The proposed AutoZone will also be built in Mill Creek Town Center, near the Walmart, at 1210 SW Scotton Way.
According to the application, the project proposes to develop an approximately 7,370-square-foot AutoZone store at the Northeast corner of Scotton Way and Southwest 13th Avenue. The application does not specify when AutoZone owners plan to have the project completed and open the store.
Uncle D’s Wood Fired Pizza is moving
According to a real estate roundup from Coldwell Banker Commercial Jenkins & Associates, Uncle D’s Wood Fired Pizza has leased 5,600 square feet of retail space at North Parkway Mall, 11 N. Parkway, Battle Ground. Uncle D’s is currently located in the Battle Ground Village at 1417 SE Rasmussen Blvd., Suite 130.
More information on these projects will be in The Reflector as it becomes available.