PENDER COUNTY — Plans have been submitted to bring two national restaurant chains to one parcel in Hampstead.
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Little Hampstead LLC out of Boca Raton, Florida, has submitted an application to build a Del Taco and Guthrie’s Chicken on 1.75 acres at the intersection of U.S. Highway 17 and Washington Acres Road. It would be Guthrie’s first location in North Carolina and Del Taco’s second, the other located in Durham.
Guthrie’s first location opened in 1965 in Haleyville, Alabama and has since expanded into Florida and Georgia. It boasts of being the first restaurant to solely sell chicken fingers and is known for its “Gut Box” with chicken fingers, fries, Texas toast, cole slaw and a signature sauce.
After opening its first location outside Barstow, California, in 1964, Del Taco is looking to expand to the other end of U.S. Interstate 40 with a Wilmington-area offering. The taco and burger shop’s first North Carolina location is slated to open in Durham in April 2025. The chain has more than 600 locations across 16 states, though the company was acquired by Jack in the Box in 2022 and in the last few days moved to close all but one of its Colorado locations.
Site plans for the Pender County Guthrie’s show the building will be 20 feet high and 2,175 square feet with an ability to seat 44 customers. The location is set to hire 15 employees. Parking spaces required are 21 and the developer has planned for 25.
As for the Del Taco, it will be 1,150 square feet and also 20 feet high, though seating capacity and employee numbers have not been determined.
Both restaurants will have drive-thrus.
Because the parcel is already zoned general business, both retail options will be allowed by-right. The projects’ site plans will be reviewed at the Pender County Technical Review Committee meeting on March 6.
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