Business & Tech

Bob Evans Approved; Expected to Open in the Spring

At the meeting on Thursday night, the board brought up a few more requests — including adding some landscaping, pedestrian sidewalk in the parking lot and bike racks — then approved the plans.

After several back-and-forth meetings with city officials, the plans for a new 4,274-square-foot Bob Evans restaurant were approved on Thursday.

The city’s architectural board of review had taken a few issues with aspects of the design plans for new restaurant at 14115 Detroit Avenue.

Andrew Hubbard, an architect representing the restaurant chain, said that the company has worked to address those concerns, one by one.

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“We’re very excited about this building,” he said. “It’s a new prototype for us. This is part of our plan to take the Bob Evans brand to a new generation.” 

At the meeting on Thursday night, the board had a few more requests — including adding some landscaping, pedestrian sidewalk in the parking lot and bike racks — then approved the plans.

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The restaurant is expected to break ground soon, and could open by spring.

During the past few months, the restaurant had already made extensive changes to the original plans — including providing more green space, adding trees, changing the roofline of the building and reducing the size of the monument sign from 10 feet to 5 feet.

For example, the classic Bob Evans red hasn’t gone anywhere; but there’s now cedar siding, shaded brick and large windows included in the elements of the design. 

“It is more of a contemporary look,” said Hubbard. “It does still somewhat look like a barn, but with a more contemporary look.”

“We didn’t want to put up a box, we wanted to apply some materials.”

The 131-seat restaurant will sit on .9 acres, with a 67-vehicle parking lot and two entrances.

“We believe that we’ve put a pretty strong building together — something that we feel will fit in very well with Detroit Avenue.”

Tom Fagan, the maintenance supervisor from the neighboring Get Go gas station had some concerns of his own — interesting because Bob Evans is buying the property from Get Go's parent company Giant Eagle.

“I have concerns about what it’s going to do to our visibility,” Fagan said. 

Board members disagreed. 

“There’s no missing that gas station,” said board chairman Michael Molinski.


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