CRESTVIEW — Famous Krystals, Double Krystals or even the 12-burger Krystal Sackful might soon be on the local menu if the City Council approves plans for a Krystal hamburger restaurant on South Ferdon Boulevard.
The council will consider the proposal at Monday’s meeting, 6 p.m. at City Hall. If approved, the new restaurant will open about the end of July and employ approximately 30 workers, Krystal spokesperson Andy Derryberry said.
The site at 2385 South Ferdon Blvd. is on the east side of Juke Hill across the highway from the Dunkin' Donuts shop. The location, between a Regions Bank office and the Family Vision Center, currently contains a gas station that closed several years ago.
Krystal officials said the heavily traveled location perfectly fits the company's "trade area and customers" profile.
"We are excited to open the Crestview Krystal location," Vice President of Development and Construction Brian Blosser said. "It is a high-potential market for the Krystal brand."
According to site plans approved by the Local Planning Agency, the Technical Review Committee and the Planning and Zoning Board, the development on the approximately 1-acre site would include a 1,702-square-foot Krystal restaurant and a future 3,198-square-foot retail building across the parking lot.
The retail building’s site would be sodded until Krystal is ready to build, according to submitted plans. Underground fuel tanks from the closed gas station have been removed, the developer's agent, Robert Ziegenfuss, told the Planning and Zoning Board at its March 19 meeting.
Krystal offered to construct a cross connection between its property and Family Vision Center, but the gesture was declined, Ziegenfuss said. City planners encourage cross connections between adjacent commercial properties to relieve traffic congestion in heavily traveled commercial areas.
The Chattanooga, Tenn.-based Krystal chain operates nearly 370 restaurants throughout the South. Its menu includes breakfast selections and the square burgers for which it is best known.
Juke Hill, named for a series of "juke joint" nightclubs that flourished on the stretch between either end of present-day Redstone Avenue West, has long had a local reputation as "jinxed property," with multiple businesses closing soon after opening on the hill.
However, the opening of the successful Dunkin’ Donuts on the site of a Lee's Chicken restaurant that lasted less than a year, as well as a professional office plaza behind the donut shop, apparently broke the "jinx."
Contact News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes at 850-682-6524 or brianh@crestviewbulletin.com. Follow him on Twitter @cnbBrian.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Krystal restaurant might open in Crestview