Hoffman Estates approves second Popeyes restaurant as first still awaits construction
Hoffman Estates officials Monday approved the village's second Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen restaurant in as many years, but it remains unclear which will be completed and open first.
The newly approved one at 2280 W. Higgins Road will be a 2,300-square-foot building with a dual-lane drive-through just east of the Buona Beef and just west of the McDonald's in front of Barrington Square Town Center east of Barrington Road.
In June 2021, the village board approved Hoffman Estates' first Popeyes on a 0.7-acre village-owned site at 65 E. Golf Road, just east of Hoffman Plaza.
But the developer closed on the $800,000 purchase of the site from the village as recently as late March and is still at the step of acquiring a building permit, Hoffman Estates Director of Planning & Transportation Jennifer Horn said.
The developers of the two approved Popeyes are not the same, she added.
The site of the Higgins Road Popeyes is partly where Buona Beef had been for 20 years before it built its current building with a dual-lane drive-through just to the west in 2019.
Popeyes will be a truly new venture among Barrington Square restaurant outlots, as the neighboring McDonald's there is also a larger and slightly relocated rebuild of a longtime business that was done about six years ago.
Jeanne Armando with MRV Architects represented the property owner Zubha Realty LP at Monday's village board consideration of the proposed Popeyes at Barrington Square. She said current scheduling issues affected by the availability of materials and equipment meant she couldn't say whether the bulk of the work would occur in the fall or spring.
“It's a contest,” Hoffman Estates Trustee Gary Pilafas joked. “If you can open before the other one ...”
Armando said that while the restaurant is designed to have 54 seats inside, the majority of most Popeyes' business is through the drive-through.