Jacob Dimond / jake@yelmonline.com
Multiple restaurant chains are progressing toward opening locations in Yelm.
At the top of the list are Jimmy John’s and Panda Express, which are making great strides toward bringing their sandwiches and Chinese food into the city.
Cody Colt, Yelm’s public works director, told the Nisqually Valley News on Friday, April 4, that those two restaurants have advanced further along in the process out of a whole assortment of businesses looking to open in Yelm.
“We’ve had pre-submission meetings, which means they feel out if they can build, open and whatnot, with Panda Express, Jimmy John’s, Blackbear Diner and a couple other pre-subs that suggested a Chick-Fil-A, an Arby’s and a Popeyes,” Colt said. “I can tell you the farthest along right now are the Panda Express and Jimmy John’s.”
He added that Jimmy John’s would likely go into the old location of Pecos Pit at 1010 E. Yelm Ave. and that Panda Express will try to build its location “in the same area.”
“Those are pretty far along. The other ones are a little bit farther out, but they’ve submitted pre-submissions and plans, so we’re hoping they come too,” Colt said. “In the case of Jimmy John’s, the building they’re going into is already constructed. They don’t have to do a whole lot of studies or mitigation because it was already a drive-thru, and there was already a restaurant there. That process will be a lot quicker.”
In addition to Jimmy John’s bringing a restaurant to Yelm, patrons can satisfy their sweet tooth after enjoying a sandwich because the new business will share a space with Baskin Robbins, according to Colt.
“The cool thing about Jimmy John’s is that it’s going to be a Jimmy John’s/Baskin Robbins. They’ve done it in two other places, and they’re going to do it in Yelm, too. It’ll be both businesses in one building,” he said. “My guess is it won’t take them long to open. They’re pretty excited to be here. I know it’s always long to negotiate with the owner; lease terms and things like that usually take the longest. I believe they’re already done with that. We’re hoping they’ll be open by the summer.”
Colt said Jimmy John’s is already beginning to prepare the inside of the location for opening. He noted that the sandwich restaurant proposed working to clear up the drive-thru as they “have some ideas on how to improve it.”
Colt said when a business builds its location, like in the case of a potential Panda Express, it will take about a year to construct and officially open. All of the inquiring restaurants would move into commercial zoning, Colt said. The proposed Chick-fil-A, which is suggested to be built near Yelm’s Walmart, would be zoned C3, while the Popeyes and Arby’s were proposed in a C1 zone. Colt noted that Jimmy John’s and Panda Express would also each be zoned C1.
“There’s not a lot of commercial space in Yelm. There’s that big plaza that was rebuilt after the fire, and there’s more being built actively. On Tahoma Boulevard, they just built an office space, and they’re building a coffee stand,” Colt said. “(Tahoma Boulevard has) two other commercial restaurants coming — 4,000-square-foot and 3,000-square-foot buildings — but they haven’t told us what those are going to be. They have suggested, when we were in meetings, that it could be an Olive Garden or Applebees-type restaurant. So they didn’t quite tell us, but they gave us a good idea.”
Colt reiterated that lots of commercial space is coming to Yelm and will be available in the future. He said he’s spoken with many business owners outside of Yelm who want to move into the city but can’t due to the lack of space. Colt is optimistic to see this change in the near future.
“I’m excited that more commercial space is coming for people to rent,” he said. “(Business owners) are seeing a market in Yelm. In Lacey and Olympia, they’re seeing a decline in tax revenue, along with Seattle. Yelm is seeing an increase, and businesses are wanting to come to Yelm, and I think it’s because it’s easy for them to come here. It’s easy for people who do the right thing and help us out to build things. They don’t have to jump through a million hoops, and we don’t have as many regulations that force people to do things.”
