Restaurants boost economy

Date	March 29, 2012
Section(s)	Success
Byline	By LINDSEY ADKISON The Brunswick News
In the past six months, Brunswick has experienced a welcomed boom. Three national chain restaurants have begun construction in Glynn County. The first slated to open is Logan's Roadhouse, 101 Capital Square Drive, Brunswick, near exit 38 off Interstate 95 The 6,500 square-foot restaurant in Brunswick will seat 237 guests and is reminiscent of American roadhouses of the past, complete with neon signs and an interactive jukebox. The restaurant will be the company's second location in the Jacksonville area. The new Logan's Roadhouse will employ a staff of around 130. Headquartered in Nashville, Tenn., Logan's Roadhouse, Inc. has more than 219 company-operated and 25 franchised Logan's Roadhouse restaurants in 23 states. It is slated to open March 26. Work is also underway on two new dining establishments at Glynn Isles Market. A combination Red Lobster and Olive Garden will open in June. Rich Jeffers, spokesperson for Darden, the parent company of Red Lobster, Olive Garden and Longhorn Steakhouse, says that Darden is looking forward to further testing the combination Olive Garden-Red Lobster restaurant. "This is a new concept format of combining two brands into one building. This will be the third one we've opened," Jeffers said. "We are building out from our home location in Orlando. The first one was in Palm Beach, Fla., and the other is in Beaufort, S.C." Jeffers said the idea behind the hybrid restaurant is to service a smaller area, communities that do not have a large enough population to support two stand-alone locations. "We've envisioned this as a way of being able to bring a larger brand into smaller communities," he said. The restaurants mark the second influx of national chains to move into town in the last four years, the first coming with the opening of Glynn Isles Market in 2008. National chains arriving in the first wave included Target, Michaels and Lowe's. Officials with the Darden restaurant group worked closely with the Brunswick and Glynn County Development Authority, which offered it an incentive package that included city and county property tax breaks that will amount to $100,000 to $200,000. It will employ some 175 people and generate some $400,000 in sales tax dollars annually, officials estimate. Development authority executive director Nathan Sparks says bringing more restaurants into the community will likely continue as the population rises. "The Olive Garden-Red Lobster project was unique in terms of capital investment, employment projections and overall economics. While we helped shepherd this one into the community in light of these factors, my sense is that restaurants who can meet our investment and employment criteria are probably few and far between," Sparks said. "Given this, we are not actively promoting Brunswick/Glynn County for additional restaurant investment projects. However, as the community's population continues to expand, I expect that we will be on the radar of more and more national chains."