The Patton Township Board of Supervisors on Wednesday unanimously approved a developer’s plans to construct a new two-tenant retail building on the site of the former Denny’s restaurant on North Atherton Street.
Chipotle Mexican Grill and Sleep Number mattress store are the planned tenants for the new 5,402 square-foot building, which is being developed by Thomas English Retail Real Estate, based in Indianapolis.
The existing restaurant building, constructed in 1985, will be demolished. Denny’s closed its 1860 N. Atherton St. location in February 2017 after the owners said they were unable to renew their franchise license.
According to plans submitted to the township in May, Chipotle will have 1,100 square feet of indoor seating and 300 square feet of outdoor seating. The current parking lot will be removed and replaced with 37 new asphalt parking spaces. Unlike the Denny’s building, the front of the new building will face North Atherton Street.
Plans initially indicated the developer would seek PennDOT approval for a right turn out from the parking lot onto North Atherton Street. Ryan Conrad, development associate with Thomas English, said on Wednesday that his firm would no longer request a right out because the property will not have sufficient frontage to meet PennDOT standards to acquire a the necessary Driveway/Local Road Highway Occupancy Permit.
Entrance to the site is from North Atherton Street or from Cornflower Lane at the rear of the site. However, exiting directly from the parking lot onto Atherton has long been prohibited and instead requires using Cornflower Lane to access Park Forest Avenue or the traffic signal near Panda Express at 1910 N. Atherton St. Those entrance and exit patterns will be maintained.
Supervisors approved the plans with conditions including a sidewalk connecting the building to the sidewalk along North Atherton Street.
The Chipotle will be the second in the Centre Region, joining the location at 116 Hiester Street in State College.
The new tenants won’t be the first Mexican restaurant or mattress store in the North Atherton Street neighborhood. In the recently constructed, adjacent plaza, Qdoba Mexican Eats and Mattress Firm opened last year at 1908 N. Atherton St.. Moe’s Southwest Grill is located across the street in Trader Joe’s Plaza and Mattress Warehouse is at 1803 N. Atherton St.
