Whataburger will break ground for its Fayetteville restaurant on West Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard later this month.
Whataburger, a privately held hamburger chain based in San Antonio with more than 770 locations nationally, bought two lots for $1.45 million this past summer. It said in a news release that it expects construction to take between three and six months and for the location to hire between 60 and 90 employees.
Whataburger Real Estate LLC of San Antonio paid $850,000 for a lot at 1956 MLK from Stephen LaFrance Pharmacy Inc. of Little Rock and $600,000 for a lot at 1920 MLK from Brant and Leslie Barnes. Whataburger is also scheduled to expand into Rogers after a $1.175 million purchase of a lot on West Pleasant Crossing Drive from First Security Bank.
The Fayetteville and Rogers locations are expected to be the first two of at least five restaurants the chain wants to open in the region.
“We’re eager to join the northwest Arkansas community and serve our customers 24 hours a day, 364 days a year,” said Rob Rodriguez, Whataburger’s senior vice president of operations, in a statement. “We’ve had our eye on this part of the country for some time and believe the region’s significant growth is a natural extension of our service area, which stretches across 10 states from Arizona to Texas to Florida.”
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