KILLEEN, Texas (KXXV) – Every day our Killeen area neighbors stop at the Killeen Food Park for a bite to eat.
The co-owners of Simply Good Burger have leased the property for the past eight years and tell me the neighbors will soon have to move elsewhere.
“About a week ago, I thought I was signing a five-year contract,” said Benjamin O’Neal, co-owner of Simply Good Burger.
“When I got there, they told me I had 30 days’ notice.”
They lease the property and sublet it to the other food trucks, so people like Tim Ferch and his wife are also forced to move out.
25 messages Reporter Adam Schindler spoke with Ferch about the need to leave the Killeen Food Park.
“Are you afraid it will really hurt your wallet?” Schindler said.
“I know it will be that way because statically, based on the trends, I expect it will be that way for the first few months,” Ferch said.
“Did they give you a reason why you had to leave?” asked Schindler.
“No,” said O’Neal.
25 messages We spoke to the property manager, who did not appear on camera, but told us that he believes the owner has other plans for the property and the decision is not personal.
For the more than a dozen small businesses that depend on this location for their operations, things are different.
“The Food Park was created to give other businesses opportunities they wouldn’t normally have had,” O’Neal said.
“It’s more than just a food park, you know, we’re a family.”
It is a family that supports each other
“Even if you don’t know where we are, there’s always someone telling another person, ‘Hey, go down the road and you’ll see a pink truck,'” Ferch said.
“There will be no more of this.”
Like the others, Ferch’s Thia Law food truck has to find a new location further down the street.
He told 25 messages that it breaks his heart to see the family they built falling apart.
Ferch also says he will be moving to South Clear Creek Road and hopes to see all of his regular customers there.
Simply Good Burger has a restaurant in North WS Young and plans to relocate its food truck while the company tries to find a new location for a food park – a place O’Neal plans to open to his new family and anyone else who wants to join them.
