Plans for a Culver’s restaurant with a drive-thru, proposed for a vacant lot near one of Lincolnwood’s busiest intersections, received positive feedback from the Board of Trustees during a May 3 Committee of the Whole meeting.
If the site plans for the new restaurant on the 4400 block of West Touhy Avenue are as well-received by the Plan Commission at a future meeting, Culver’s franchisees Steve and Christine Anichini said they plan to have the restaurant for business within a year.
The couple currently runs one other Culver’s, in northwest suburban Lake Zurich at 645 N. Rand Road.
Before construction on the 4,080 square-foot building can begin, the village will have to approve the necessary zoning variations, including the permitting to allow a drive-thru lane along Touhy Avenue. That process that could take between three to five months, according to Steve McNellis, community development director for Lincolnwood. The next step in the process, securing the building permits for the property, could take another three months, he said.
“We were ready to open yesterday,” Steve Anichini said following the Committee of the Whole meeting, where Mayor Jerry Turry said he was ready to welcome the Wisconsin-based restaurant chain known for its “ButterBurgers,” cheese curds, fried foods and frozen custard.
“The faster you can move, the faster we’ll get things to move for you,” Turry said in response to Anichini’s remarks that the Culver’s franchise was working out a deal to finalize a 15-year lease for the property.
Imperial Realty Company owns the vacant half-acre parcel of land to the west of the Republic Bank building, on the southeast corners of Touhy and Kilbourn avenues. If Culver’s signs a lease for the property with Imperial, Anichini said the company would work out a shared-parking plan with the bank.
“We’ve been negotiating with Imperial based on what Culver’s corporate needs to make this work, and now it’s in the hands of the attorneys to work out a shared parking (agreement),”Anichini said.
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According to the proposal, the eatery would have a drive-thru lane and 40 parking spaces, 14 of which would be in a shared parking lot also used by tenants in the Republic Bank building, which houses the offices of the Lincolnwood Chamber of Commerce and a mix of other small businesses.
Customers coming from East Touhy Avenue would enter the restaurant at the northeast corner of the property through a 20-foot driveway shared with the bank, according to the site plans. Two other driveways would connect to Kilbourn Avenue along the south end of the property and would run behind the bank and empty out onto Lincoln Avenue.
A 1,000 square-foot indoor dining area would have seating for 89 customers, along with a 400 square-foot outdoor patio facing the front of the property to accommodate 16 guests.
The site plans also show landscaped hedges and a wall to block the surrounding properties to the south of the restaurant from car headlights in the drive-thru.
The store would be open from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily.
About 100 employees would be hired to staff the location, including 80 part-time workers and 20 full-time staff, Anichini said.
Another Culver’s is expected to open in Skokie later this year in a shopping center at 9455 Skokie Blvd.
Natalie Hayes is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.