If not the media, Chick-fil-A is communicating with Warren County

Royal Examiner sent a series of questions to a Chick-fil-A attorney and local municipal contact person, James Spitzer, on Monday, April 30.  On Tuesday, May 1, we received a response – not from Spitzer but from Amanda Hannah, whom Spitzer had passed our questions on to.

“We are always evaluating potential new locations in the hopes of serving new customers great food with remarkable service. We have no locations to confirm at this time, however,” Hannah replied by e-mail.

If the company’s reply to Royal Examiner was vague and devoid of direct responses to our questions on whether the company would seek an alternate location in Warren County to the Riverton Commons site they have or are poised to abandon, the County Planning Department is doing better.

Contacted on Wednesday, May 2, County Planning Director Taryn Logan said she had received a voicemail reply to her message left at Chick-fil-A corporate in Fulton County, Georgia.  The message did confirm that the company had terminated its lease in the Riverton Commons Shopping Center.

“It was a very nice message – they said that site just didn’t work for them but they still want to be in the community.  So, I am hopeful and we will try to get them working with the EDA so we can find them a new site that does work for them.”

Logan said the message did not elaborate on the reasoning for the decision on Riverton Commons.  However, as Royal Examiner reported in its initial story on the Riverton Commons bailout, Chick-fil-A submitted a site plan and building permit request to the County on April 5 and had received DEQ and other State agency feedback by the fourth week of April. See Related Story

As County Administrator Doug Stanley had reported to his board and the town council, Chick-fil-A’s plan at Riverton Commons was “to demolish the former Chevy Chase/Capital One bank building and replace it with a 5,000 square foot restaurant with two drive-through lanes.”

If not here, where? Royal Examiner File Photo/Roger Bianchini & CassAviation

Stanley’s late April reports on the Chick-fil-A status also observed, “The engineer is currently addressing agency comments, including DEQ comments and will be resubmitting the site plan in the near future.”

As we asked in our initial story, “Was there something in either the DEQ or other agency comments on its site plan that rubbed Chick-fil-A management the wrong way?” – OR may have indicated unanticipated expenditures in the company’s development of the site?”

The timing of the corporate decision might suggest “yes”; but Chick-fil-A is holding its decision-making processes close to its corporate vest.

But as an Italian race car driver is purported to have once said after ripping his rearview mirror off and tossing it aside, “What is behind me is NOT important.”

What is important is the view ahead …