An outparcel at Riverwood Town Center was previously slated for a bank, but a restaurant chain purchased the site in September.
Riverwood Town Center was built in 2009. Since then, 5113 Washington Road has been slated for a bank since Georgia Bank & Trust acquired the site in 2014.
South State Bank eventually ended up owning the site through its acquisition of Georgia Bank & Trust, yet they never moved forward with building a branch at the location. South State Bank sold the property on Sept. 16, for $1.1 million to a Wendy’s fast-food franchisee, according to public records.
JAI restaurant group purchased the site through a new LLC. JAI operates 224 restaurants across the United States and is one of the top 5 Wendy’s franchisees according to their website.
JAI’s website states that 75% of their locations are “image activated.” Image activated restaurants are sites that have undergone substantial redesign or are built to encourage more dining in than is common with fast food restaurants. According to a Yahoo Finance story, Wendy’s began an aggressive program to remodel its image in 2011 and has since remodeled over 1,300 locations.
Representatives for JAI did not respond to request for comment on whether the location would be “image activated.” As part of the acquisition JAI borrowed $2.9 million dollars, according to public records, which would indicate the location will be one of Wendy’s larger models than any in the current CSRA market.
Riverwood Town Center is also home to McDonalds, Starbucks, Rooted Coffee, Mi-Rancho, CVS, Security Federal Bank, Anytime Fitness, and an 85,000 square foot Publix anchored shopping center.
