A Sonic drive-in location is being proposed for a vacant lot on North National Road in Columbus.
A franchising company, North Fork Holdings, LLC of West Plains, Missouri, has submitted an application to the city’s planning department for the restaurant, city-county associate planner Stephen Hughes confirmed.
If zoning issues can be ironed out, the new Sonic Drive-In will be constructed in a vacant lot at 2030 N. National Road, next door to Rally’s.
North Fork principal manager Jacob Stauffer said he’s already made five trips to Columbus to look over the location and the city.
“Columbus is a thriving community,” Stauffer said. “I love the trade area, as well as the location where we are going to be.”
While a building permit has not yet been issued, “we don’t anticipate any deal killers coming out of this,” Stauffer said. “We are very much committed to proceeding on this site.”
Back-and-forth revisions are fairly typical of the city’s development review process, especially with commercial projects, Hughes said.
While some revisions only require minor adjustments, “there are occasionally things that a developer doesn’t know about the entirety of the city’s 350-page zoning ordinance,” Hughes said.
North Fork, which is requesting to build the restaurant where two automotive dealerships were located at different times, operates more than 40 Sonic Drive-Ins within the Ohio River Valley, Tennessee and Missouri. They have recently acquired the Sonics located in Seymour and Scottsburg, Stauffer said. Other nearby outlets owned by different franchisers are located in Greensburg and Greenwood.
“We continue to grow, and are committed to building in this part of Indiana,” Stauffer said.
A fast-food industry magazine reports there are 3,490 Sonic restaurants located in 46 states. QSR Magazine ranks Sonic Drive-In 14th among the top 50 quick-service and fast-casual restaurant brands in the nation.
Known for its use of carhops on roller skates, Sonic’s menu consists of hamburgers, French fries, onion rings, corn dogs, chili dogs, and breakfast toaster sandwiches, as well as a selection of drinks and ice cream desserts.
Slightly less than one acre in size, the empty lot earmarked for Sonic’s location has been increasing in value over the years. In 2000, the land was purchased for $141,000, online property records state. The land was sold in 2013 to the San Diego, California-based “Jack In The Box” restaurant chain for $996,000, online records indicate.
While plans for a “Jack In The Box” were approved at Columbus City Hall, the restaurant-chain decided not to develop the property, Hughes said. Instead, the chain’s Indiana restaurants all appear to be within the Indianapolis metropolitan area.
“Jack In The Box” waited eight years before selling the land on May 12 to North Fork for $1.15 million, online records state.
While Stauffer says he would like construction to begin as soon as possible, he does not have any timeline for the project.
“Obviously, there are supply-chain and labor issues throughout the economy, but we’ll work through them,” Stauffer said. “We are currently building three Sonics throughout our territory. It’s a different time, but the issues are not insurmountable.”
The “Sonic Drive-In” brand is owned by Inspire Brands of Atlanta, Georgia. That’s the same corporation that was in the news last winter when it announced it would build two Dunkin Coffee and Doughnut shops in Columbus. Construction is underway in the Northern Village Shopping Center, while the other is at the former Daily Farm Market building along Jonathan Moore Pike.
Besides Dunkin and Sonic, Inspire Brands also owns the Arby’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, Jimmy John’s, and Rusty Taco brand restaurants.
