Mayor: Popeye's possible in Middletown

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Leaders woo fast food restaurant proposal already shunned by Strasburg officials

By Sally Voth -- svoth@nvdaily.com

MIDDLETOWN -- A businessman whose plan to bring a Popeye's to Strasburg was rebuffed by the town's Planning Commission is now being courted by Middletown.

Mansoor Awan went before the Strasburg panel in May to discuss rezoning 33699 Old Valley Pike from X-transitional to commercial so he could build the chicken restaurant and also possibly a Papa John's pizza, as well as a bank or other retail business.

Since then, Awan has apparently dropped his plan for Strasburg.

Middletown Mayor Marshall J. "Mark" Brown hopes he'll instead come to his town.

"[Zoning Administrator Fred Wharton] put a call into the folks, said, 'Look, if you can't find a suitable location there in Strasburg, we've got an excellent site just across from Lord Fairfax Community College that would suit your needs,'" Brown said Friday afternoon.

"I'm not sure if anything's come back yet or not. We've definitely offered it to them."

A four-unit building should be available in the next two months or so at the site of the former Carter's Family Store, which was destroyed by fire last year.

"They're in there with earth-moving equipment right now," Brown said. "They should be laying brick next week."

It's early enough for the building to be customized to a buyer's needs, he said.

"I think Popeye's is a great fit," Brown said. "Middletown, we don't have a burger place or a chicken place."

Lord Fairfax would be a boon to such a restaurant, he said.

"We have a college up there with a lot of students that have a need for fast food," Brown said.

Strasburg Councilman Rich Orndorff said he was told by Awan's real-estate agent that he wasn't treated well by the Strasburg Planning Commission and a couple of council members in attendance.

"I guess he didn't like how he was spoken to," Orndorff said.

He said it did appear that the Popeye's plans needed tweaking, but he'd hoped that some council members could meet with Awan to try to come up with a solution, but "I understand he has no intention of coming back to Strasburg."

Some members of the commission and the council expressed concerns
regarding the aesthetics of a Popeye's restaurant and sign, according to the meeting's minutes.

"[Councilman Don Le Vine] feels this is a very important piece of land," the minutes say. "The town wants to grow, but they can wait for quality growth. It is true there are economic conditions which are causing hardships, but the town's finances are sound and we are not as desperate as some. He thinks patience will lead to good development and we do not have to re-zone."

According to Awan's application, the restaurant would be all brick, with the other side of the parcel being possibly a bank or office. He estimated the two restaurant chains would bring in $1.5 million a year and employ about 35 workers.

Corporate restaurants can often tailor designs to fit a community's look, Orndorff said.
"You can request some of those things, but that doesn't mean you don't allow the business to come," he said. "In this economic situation, we need as much revenue as we can get, and business and commercial and that sort of thing, that's what we need," he said. "That's the type of revenue because it's going to bring tax dollars. I think anything you can have along [U.S.] 11 coming into Strasburg, I think that just encourages people to get off the interstate at Exit 298 [is good]."

Awan couldn't be reached for comment Friday.