We have a little more information on what the building might look like, but don’t yet know the name of the restaurant hoping to move in. During their meeting on Wednesday, August 7, Farmville City Council members received an update on the South Main Street project.

The City Planning Commission heard and approved the zoning plan during its July meeting. To be clear, the City Council does not need to discuss it because restaurants are a use that is legally permitted in the commercial area along the highway.

That new business will take over South Main Street, the site of the former Ken’s Car Coop, in 2004. Stonefield representative J. Reid Cooksey told the commission last month that the plan is to demolish the existing building and then build a one-story, 2,300-square-foot restaurant with a pickup counter.

City Manager Dr. Scott Davis told council members that the proposal meets all of Farmville’s zoning requirements. The plan calls for indoor seating, a patio area with some seating and a pickup window. Farmville’s codes require 20 parking spaces for a business of this size. The business now plans for 26.

As part of the plan, access to the site from South Main Street will be closed and replaced with a walkway. Instead, there will only be one access path, on the left side of the property on Bowling Lane. And for those nearby who are afraid to see the whole construction site, there is a wooded area to the left of the property. The idea is that it will serve as a buffer between this proposed Farmville restaurant and the building on Spring Valley Road.

When would it open?
So when will it open? The current plan is for construction to be completed in early 2025. And before you ask: No, there is no mention of a specific restaurant on the site plan or in any other documents submitted to the city.

“This is a national chain, that much we know,” Davis told the council. “(However) we don’t know exactly which (chain) it is.”

At the commission meeting, Cooksey said his clients would like to begin construction on the project by the end of the year, with the goal of having it handed over to a tenant, the aforementioned restaurant chain, by spring or summer 2025.

Mayor Brian Vincent wanted to make it clear that before anyone comes to City Hall with a wish list of who should move in, the City Council does not decide which restaurant is selected as a tenant.