When it comes to the soon-to-be built Zaxby’s in McMinnville, people have inquiring minds. Since Zaxby’s always seems to be a popular topic of discussion, let’s kick off today’s show with all the latest zealous details.
It appears everything has pretty much been finalized and we should expect to be buying Zaxby’s zesty chicken sandwiches around the first of the year.
For those who may not have heard, Zaxby’s has purchased 1.09 acres of land between AutoZone and C&K Donut on Chancery Street. The selling price was $425,000, according to county records.
Local realtor Sally Steakley orchestrated the deal and she told me Zaxby’s had hoped to start construction the first of October. However, she says that start time has been pushed back ever so slightly to mid-October.
If you happened to catch the story I did on commercial construction about two weeks ago, you may recall the contractors I talked to all said projects like Zaxby’s, McDonald’s and Bojangles should never take more than 90 days unless something has gone horribly wrong. With that in mind, that means Zaxby’s should be in operation around the start of next year, give or take a couple weeks, should the mid-October start date be achieved.
Since I had Sally on the line, I asked her about some of her other projects. She told me she just finished selling the same Zaxby’s operators property in Lawrenceburg for a restaurant there. She also said she has approached other retail chains about locating in McMinnville but the response hasn’t been glowing.
“For some of them, they require a traffic count that’s almost twice ours,” said Sally. “There was a sit-down restaurant I was talking to that was able to find out the sales of one of their competitors here and they decided it wouldn’t be worth it for them to come if their competitor was only doing that much in sales.”
Sally said daily traffic count on the bypass is 17,000 vehicles. She said there are a number of retail chains that require 30,000, with others requiring 40,000. The bypass comes to mind because there’s that attractive acreage on the corner of the bypass and Spring Street that’s been cleared, leveled, and is just begging for a retail development.
Hopefully this zippy segment has answered all your Zaxby’s questions for the day. Look for construction in mid-October.

Ceremonial start at DN Plastics

DN Plastics started production at its facility on Manchester Highway about 10 months ago, but Wednesday was the day for the company’s ceremonial grand opening celebration with state and local officials.
Tennessee Economic Development Commissioner Randy Boyd was among a group of officials on hand to welcome DN Plastics and co-founders Raj and Sunita Agrawal to the community.
“They could have stayed in Michigan and they could have chosen other states, but they chose us and we appreciate that,” said Boyd. He joked that Keith Hayes, COO of VIAM Manufacturing in Manchester, should get the title of honorary commissioner for all the work he did to bring DN Plastics to Tennessee. VIAM is the primary customer for DN Plastics.
Boyd talked about some of the many reasons so many companies are choosing to locate in Tennessee right now.
“Every state has dirt and electricity,” said Boyd. “What we have in Tennessee is the best balance sheet. We have the lowest debt per capita of any state in the nation. Every prospect we talk to, every single prospect, wants to know about our workforce and our talent pipeline. And with the state’s new Tennessee Promise program where you can get two years of technical education completely free, we can guarantee you a trained workforce for decades. That’s the best sales pitch you can have.”
Sunita told the grand-opening crowd about how DN Plastics got its start in Michigan 17 years ago. Raj talked about coming to the United States to continue his education and earning a doctorate degree in chemical engineering from Michigan State.
“I’ve always had a fascination for manufacturing,” said Raj. “At heart, I love to develop new material and I want to tell all the people who are here with VIAM that I have a few things up my sleeve.”
Raj praised VIAM for its business practices and said “it’s the Google of this industry. The way they do things is unparalleled.”
As far as the DN Plastics business itself, Raj said there was a reason he built a 110,000-square-foot facility. He did so with growth in mind. He said the company recently added a third line about two weeks ago and is working to bring plastic sheeting capabilities to Morrison. Thus far, the company has dealt only with plastic pellets.
“We are also looking at an outside acquisition and hopefully we will know something on that in the next six months or less,” said Raj.
DN Plastics, with its highly visible location on Manchester Highway, is ready to bring more jobs to Warren County and has recently begun getting materials delivered by rail.
A number of state and county officials were given the opportunity to speak at the grand opening ceremony. For some reason, I was not. So the editors of Business Cheetah will use this time to officially welcome the Agrawal family to Middle Tennessee and wish them tremendous success.

Tim McGill to say goodbye

The sad announcement of the day is the impending departure of Tim McGill from Saint Thomas River Park. It was revealed Friday that McGill has tendered his resignation as hospital CEO effective Oct. 31. He had served in that capacity for the past four years.
McGill is leaving to accept the role of CEO at Livingston Regional Hospital, where he previously served in the same role. Saint Thomas Health says it will undertake a search for a new leader for the McMinnville hospital.
“I’ve enjoyed my time leading this great hospital and living in McMinnville,” said McGill. “It was a hard decision to leave the people here, but I know the hospital will be in great hands.”
River Park Hospital became part of Saint Thomas Health in August 2015 in a transaction that transferred ownership of River Park and three other hospitals in the Upper Cumberland region from Capella Healthcare to Saint Thomas Health.
“Tim has done a remarkable job in his leadership of Saint Thomas River Park Hospital,” said Gordon Ferguson, president of Saint Thomas Health’s regional hospitals. “During his tenure, the hospital has successfully recruited new physicians, added services and been nationally recognized for quality and patient safety. He has also been a respected leader in the McMinnville and Warren County communities so he will be missed.”
From my perch, I can say McGill did a commendable job of stabilizing a position that had become somewhat of a revolving door. Some River Park CEOs served such a short time here, I don’t even remember their names. That's pretty significant because I'm still young enough to remember most things.
But McGill changed that trend with his four-year stay. I found him to be a knowledgeable and accessible source of information. Best wishes to him from the folks at Business Cheetah.

The Old Store comes to life

The old Cook’s Pawn Shop at 100 Sparta Street has reopened as a charming gift shop called The Old Store. Owners Jamie and Fran Grant opened the business Monday after buying the building a year ago and doing major renovations.
The store is packed full of merchandise and contains a little of everything. “Any type of collectible someone wants, I’m sure we have it here,” said Fran.
There’s glassware, jewelry, figurines, knives, candles, greeting cards, artwork and much more in stock. Jamie says the merchandise comes from the estate of his mother, who died about 18 months ago.
“She had bought out a shop and intended to open her own shop but she was never able to do it,” said Jamie. “So I ended up with her treasures. This isn’t all of it. There’s still another truckload to pick up in Maine.”
The Grants say they are working to get the word out that they’re open six days a week and ready for business. The first week was a little slow.
“It probably wasn’t the best idea to open after fair week but that’s the way it happened,” said Jamie. “We’re going to be patient and I think we’ll be alright. This place has been closed down for awhile. You can’t expect to open back up and for it to boom overnight.”
The plan is to continue adding new items and to also emphasize seasonal merchandise too. Jamie says Halloween items will be arriving soon and that will be followed by Christmas items.
If you enjoy shopping for collectibles, stop by The Old Store in downtown McMinnville on the corner of Main and Sparta streets. In an interesting sidenote about Jamie, he has a brother who lives in Denver, Colo., just two blocks from the Denver Broncos football stadium. He can watch games on the stadium jumbotron from his yard.
The Old Store is open Monday thru Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Hours on Saturday are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The phone number is (931) 314-6123.

That’s all folks

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