Seattle – After a 7 week search, Dick’s Drive-In Restaurants announced today that it has reached agreement with the owners of the TOP Food & Drug stores to purchase land in Edmonds to build the first new Dick’s Drive-In restaurant in 36 years. The property is located at 21900 Highway 99, in the northeast corner of the TOP Foods parking lot. Plans are to open the new drive-in by late 2011.
“All of the north-end communities have been very welcoming, but we can only build one restaurant at a time,” says Jim Spady, vice president ofDick’s Drive-Ins and son of co-founder and namesake, Dick Spady. “The Edmonds property is an ideal location on Highway 99 with easy access from Interstate 5 via 220th Street SW.” (map)
Spady added the company’s experience with the TOP Foods owners has been a plus. “As a family-owned business, we like working with the Haggen family who created what is now the largest, independent grocery store chain in Washington,” Spady says.
“We’re ecstatic that the Spady family will build the sixth Dick’s Drive-In next to our TOP Food & Drug in Edmonds,” says Jim Donald, president and CEO of Haggen, Inc. “As a longtime Puget Sound resident who has done a lot of traveling, I haven’t found a better hamburger than what I eat at Dick’s! We’ve found this site ideal for serving the community and believe both the new Dick’s Drive-In and our TOP Foods store will benefit from being next to each other.”
In addition to a Highway 99 location and easy access to I-5, Spady says the property is close to Edmonds Community College and Edmonds Stadium. The stadium is home field for all of the high schools in the Edmonds School District which includes; Edmonds-Woodway, Lynnwood, Meadowdale, Mountlake Terrace and Scriber Lake. “Nothing like hungry teenagers after a football game,” Spady says.
“The City of Edmonds is excited to welcome Dick’s Drive-Ins to Edmonds,” says Edmonds Mayor Mike Cooper, “The Spady family’s long-standing commitment to good jobs, education, and giving back to the community is just the kind of business we work to attract in our city.”
The property purchase is contingent on the successful completion of various feasibility studies and obtaining all of the necessary permits from the City of Edmonds. “Our meetings to date with Edmond’s city officials have been very positive. If everything goes well, we should close the sale within 180 days, begin construction in the spring and open the Edmonds Dick’s in late 2011,” Spady says.
The new site selection process included a customer online poll that resulted in a phenomenal response with over 115,000 people voting whether to locate the new Dick’s Drive-In north, south or east of Seattle. After almost 3 weeks of voting, the north region scored highest with 53,810 votes, or 46 percent of the votes cast.
“Although ‘north’ won the poll, given that there was also strong support for a new Dick’s restaurant both south and east of Seattle, we hope to eventually build a new restaurant in each of those areas if the new Edmonds Dick’s Drive-In is a success.” Spady says.
Today also marks Dick’s co-founder and namesake, Dick Spady’s 87th birthday.
The original Dick’s Drive-In opened in 1954 on Northeast 45th Street in Wallingford. The most recent restaurant built was the Queen Anne Dick’s in 1974. The new Dick’s in Edmonds will maintain the original restaurant’s iconic 1950’s look and architecture.