Popeyes franchise coming to Hoffman Estates
Hoffman Estates officials plan to approve the $800,000 sale a 0.7-acre village-owned property just east of Hoffman Plaza on Golf Road to the developer of a Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen restaurant.
Village board members unanimously recommended adoption of the agreement when they met as the planning, building and zoning committee last Monday.
“I think this is the type of use we were hoping for, which is good,” Trustee Gary Pilafas said.
The village bought the former site of Woodfield Motor Sports in 2012 with $840,000 from the area's tax increment financing (TIF) district, intended to fund improvements within the district.
The village razed vacant snowmobile and motorcycle shops on the site and replaced them with a grass lawn.
Two years ago, the owner of the adjacent Hoffman Plaza — the Florida-based Sterling Organization — proposed buying the site for a three-tenant retail building, but never followed through.
But the new proposed buyer, ABYGOLF, INC., is agreeing to put up $25,000 in nonrefundable earnest money and adhere to a relatively swift time frame, Hoffman Estates Economic Development Director Kevin Kramer said.
The developer hopes to get to work before the end of this year and the proposed Popeyes should be serving customers by at least this time next year, he added.
Though the restaurant industry has been hard hit by COVID-19, Popeyes franchises have weathered the downturn relatively well, according to available data, Kramer said.
This would be the only Popeyes in Hoffman Estates and will have a drive-through, he added. The sale is contingent on village approval of the restaurant design.
The draft agreement calls for a 60-day due diligence period for the buyer, but requires closing within 180 days. Part of the village's responsibility is to obtain a new plat of survey and plat of consolidation for the land. Because the buyer's engineering consultants will be on site, they have agreed to do the work for which the village will reimburse them up to $9,000 at the closing.