7 Brew, a drive-thru-only coffee shop that has something of a cult following, has been given the green light to build a new location on the site of a former Wendy’s fast-food restaurant in Carpentersville.
The Arkansas-based company, which advertises that it has 20,000 unique drink options, has been awarded a special permit from the village that will allow it to build at 2280 Randall Road.
It will be competing with a Starbucks that recently opened in the same shopping center.
7 Brew plans to demolish the vacant restaurant and put up a 750-square-foot building that will have two drive-thru lanes and an overflow lane on the south side of the building. It will be landscaped and will have 10 parking spaces for employees but no parking for customers or indoor seating.
In order to keep traffic flowing, employees take orders on iPads in the drive-thru lanes and accept immediate payment, according to company information. Orders are picked up at the front of the drive-thru queue from employees who walk orders out.
The property is located in a strip shopping center that includes a Menards, McDonald’s and Culver’s fast-foot restaurants, a gas station and a breakfast restaurant. A Woodman’s grocery store and other restaurants are located south of the property.
Despite that situation, the fact that Carpentersville has been working to find a solution to traffic issues along Randall and Miller roads and traffic problems at other 7 Brews, particularly the one in Naperville
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, Village Manager Brad Stewart said staff is not worried the business will have a negative effect.A traffic impact study done by the company at the village’s request found up to 36 vehicles can be stacked in the drive-thru lanes on site and an additional seven can be put in an overflow lane. The lanes will be on the east and south sides of the property.
Customers aren’t in line for long. The average transaction ranges from three minutes and 44 seconds to four minutes and 36 seconds, according to the study.
7 Brew is also being required to develop a drive-thru stacking mitigation plan if stacking extends beyond the property lines, according to village documents.
“The village staff has worked with the 7 Brew management team, their architects and designers,” Stewart said. “They put a lot of thought into the planning, ensuring the drive-thru traffic doesn’t create any sort of overflow in the surrounding area.”
Carpentersville has been working on improving right-in, right-out lanes at the intersection of Randall and Miller Roads, he added.
“We are actively continuing to pursue what would be an intergovernmental agreement between the village and the Kane County Department of Transportation pertaining to some of the easement rights,” Stewart said.
Discussions to create a new access point north on the shopping center site onto Huntley Road are also ongoing. Carpentersville is working to get easements from a property owner on Huntley Road.
“We see that as a critical retail area. We certainly want to do everything we can to ensure a safe and effective flow of traffic,” Stewart said.
With the special use permit approved at the village board’s Oct. 7 meeting, 7 Brew can start construction as soon as it gets a building permit, he said.
Store hours are expected to be 5:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. weekdays and 5:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. on weekends.
Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.