Wendy’s on Wrightsboro Road hosted its ribbon-cutting for its upgraded new building on Friday morning.
The fast-food location temporarily closed last year on Aug. 15 for what was initially supposed to be a two-month renovation project.
JAI Restaurant Group, the Pompano Beach, Fla.-based company that owns most of the Wendy’s franchises in Augusta, invested more than $1 million in renovating the restaurant, which was built in 1979, according to property records.
“It needed a lot of work,” said district manager Hurgo Florvil, explaining that the franchise owners had to commission an overhaul and confer with the city to bring the building up to code. “They had to literally take all the walls down. All we had was the foundation and had to work from the inside to bring it to the level it is now.”
The remodel included moving the office, improving the bathrooms, replacing the counters and even the installation of a new self-serve fountain drink machine, complete with more than 200 flavors.
The kitchen is also sporting a new $65,000 double-sided grill that can cook small beef patties within 30 seconds, and larger ones within a minute, Florvil said.
Employees dispersed across other area Wendy’s locations during the four-month rebuild, a process Florvil says proved to be cumbersome for district managers and team members. “We had to coordinate everyone in three or four different restaurants throughout,” he said. “So that way we have every employee and every manager, so that when we reopened it wouldn’t be a disaster.”
The refurbished site, numbered 2981, reopened on Dec. 15. The Wrightsboro corridor staple welcomed the Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce to help celebrate the reopening and the upgrade, with snacks, balloons and even small party games.
Wendy’s 2981 is open again at 3342 Wrightsboro Road.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering business for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
