By Julie D’Aloiso
The Mayor of Macedonia, Nick Molnar talked in the February 13th council meeting about a letter he received from Swensons: “Unfortunate news that came this week, Swensons is not coming to town. I am a little disappointed because we spent a lot of time and effort to get them here. They did not give a specific reason to why they decided to not to go in the Macedonia location. They were done and approved. The last I heard was they were waiting on a demo permit, which we approved. And then at the last minute, the 11th hour, they backed out.”
He goes on to say: “We have other tenants looking to go in the Steak n Shake location. As a matter of fact, as soon as I found out, I had two people that day looking at that location. Both are restaurants that I believe the community would be very happy with. I cannot divulge who they are because they are in the negotiating stages but know that those pieces of property (including the Pizza Hut) are very hot and there is a lot of interest. It is just a matter of who can come in there and make the right investment and it is a good fit.”
And he wanted to remind everyone “…if they are within zoning restrictions I cannot stop someone from coming in. For example, Burger King was interested in coming to town. I don’t know if they are still interested. I have not heard as of late. But if they are within zoning restrictions, I cannot stop them.”
It is very surprising that Swensons backed out because they came before the planning commission at least twice last year. The city of Macedonia had many meetings with them to make compromises on the design and site plan. But for some reason, at the last possible minute, the Swensons’ board rejected the plan.
But for the residents of this area, all is not lost! The mayor of the Village of Northfield, Jesse Nehez, indicated in his council meeting on February 12th, the village is in discussions with Swensons once again. As you may recall, years ago Swensons was thinking about coming to the village. The village definitely does not have as many building restrictions as Macedonia. So maybe, for Swensons’ fans, there will be Galley Boys to be found on Rt 8!
And I can tell you that there are a lot of people who are very emotional when we post on social media about Swensons. Time will tell if we will have another post about Swensons! Stay tuned! We were the first to report all of the Swensons news!
