On May 1, a new Dunkin’ Donuts location will open on Northside Parkway, situated between an existing Starbucks and McDonald’s and directly across from the local Chick-fil-A.
Inspire Brands, the owner of Dunkin’, chose the Northside Parkway location because the surrounding area has a large population and includes the Northwest Medical Center and schools such as Westminster.
With the upcoming branch taking shape on a route many Westminster students use to get to school each day, the community has known about the branch for at least five months, and many have wanted to find out why opening has taken so long.
Three groups are involved in the location: Inspire Brands, who owns the site; general contractors, the professionals who manage building projects; and the Chunara Group, the company that will operate the new branch once it is built.
Chunara Group vice-president Shehzaan Chunara has some knowledge about the building process and explains that government permitting slows the process down. “[The process] generally takes about a couple months from the time you purchase the property to get design plans done, and then you submit it to [the city of Atlanta] for permits, and they will spend several months reviewing those plans, and they will have comments on it.”
After several more design edits and submissions, the city issues a building permit. Then, general contractors participate in a two-week bidding process to work on the project.
“The construction process takes about 120 to 150 days,” Chunara says. “When you’re towards the end of that process, you’re going to call in for inspections, so the city inspector will come [to the building] to make sure it’s in full compliance with the plans that were submitted, stamped, and approved.
“Then once that’s done and you receive your Certificate of Occupancy, you can open for business,” he continues. “That entire period from the time you buy the property to when you open could be anywhere from 12 to 15 months, and that’s kind of the timeline that this project has followed.”
Once construction is complete, the new store will be smaller than most Dunkin’ branches, consisting only of a drive-thru and a vestibule–a small indoor space with a counter, a preparation area, and no seating or restrooms. While some locations managed by the Chunara Group are a combination of Dunkin’ and the ice cream and cake shop Baskin-Robbins, this branch will be Dunkin’ only.
Middle School director of student life Tina McCormick believes that the new location’s impact will be positive. “I think that teachers will have easier access to donuts, which helps build the foundation of all of our student life programs,” she says.
“If you’re going to affinity groups or Bible studies or leadership groups, and [you know] you’re going to get a donut? Makes the meeting better!” she adds.
However, McCormick also expects traffic will increase. “It’s going to be tough because we already have those two popular businesses (Starbucks and McDonald’s), and what people do is they stop traffic to turn into those from the opposite side of the street,” she says.
“I think with Dunkin’, it’s going to be big,” she adds. “It might be a problem, and especially at the start…Fridays, Tuesdays, and even Thursdays, the increased traffic around that area, [people are] going to see it around [7:30 am].”