Commercial Vehicle Accident Injury Attorneys in Burlington, NC

As an unusually brisk winter gives way to the first flush of spring, a number of dormant commercial parcels in Burlington have begun to heat up with a seasonal burst of construction activity.

This sudden budding of hardhats has been particularly noticeable at the intersection of South Church Street and Colonial Drive, where site preparations are now underway for a new location of Starbucks.

Along the next block of South Church Street, a shell building is undergoing a makeover for the proposed relocation of the Village Grill.

Meanwhile, more than a mile away, renovations have begun to transform the former home of Red Lobster into a new location of First Watch – an up-and-coming Florida-based chain that has been making a name for itself in North Carolina.

Starbucks

Perhaps the most conspicuous of these three projects is the prep work for the new Starbucks at 2405 South Church Street. Once home to a long-vacant bank building, this corner parcel was acquired in 2022 by a limited liability corporation dubbed “Lemonade MM Burlington.”

This company originally applied for a demolition permit in December of 2023 in order to replace the old bank with a new Starbucks. The city issued this permit earlier this year, giving way to a flurry of additional filings for a new shell building to house the Seattle-based coffee chain’s latest entrée into the Burlington market.

The Village Grill

Within shouting distance of this proposed Starbucks location, a shell building at 2317 South Church Street is being transformed into a brand new home for one of Burlington’s favorite local dining establishments.

Since it was founded in 1985, the Village Grill has been a veritable fixture in its current location at 580 Huffman Mill Road. But after four decades in business, the restaurant has outgrown this cozy little abode, according to its owner and co-founder Randy Cox.

In an interview with The Alamance News, Cox acknowledged that the shell building along South Church Street will offer several advantages over the Village Grill’s existing digs.

“Number one is parking; that’s our number one Achilles’ heel at Huffman Mill Road,” he explained. “We also have a very busy curbside pickup. But it’s at the same front door where walk-ins enter, which is very unsafe.”

Cox added that the property along South Church Street will be a vast improvement on both counts. Nor is he the first to have noticed this property’s virtues as the potential home for a restaurant.

For the past four decades or so, this 2-acre parcel has belonged to the Mazzurco family of Burlington, who are perhaps best known as the proprietors of Sal’s Italian Restaurant on Huffman Mill Road. At one point, the Mazzurcos leased their South Church Street holdings to Longbranch steak-house and, later, to a Mexican-themed eatery called Crazy Mexico. Cox noted that it’s with the blessing of Sal Mazzurco, the Italian eatery’s second-generation owner and operator, that he’s now able to look forward to his own stint at this location.

“Sal has been very good to work with,” he added. “We’re currently working on the building, and we’re making pretty good progress on the remodel. Our goal is to be in there in the middle to late fall.”

The city’s inspection records indicate that the owner of this property received a permit for the aforementioned shell building in January. Since then, city officials have convened a “pre-application conference” with the property owner to discuss the building’s “total renovation” for what the city’s inspection records describe as a “new restaurant tenant upfit.”

Cox went on to note that this building will ultimately be tailored to the Village’s Grill’s long-term requirements.

“The square footage will mainly be the same [as the current site on Huffman Mill Road],” he added. “The dining room will be slightly larger. . . We will have a patio with some seats and the bar seating comparison is roughly the same.”

Cox stressed that the Village Grill will offer the same menu it now boasts when it reopens in this remodeled building. He added that, in the future, the eatery will expand its offerings under the tutelage of his daughter Katherine, who has decided to join Cox in the family business.

First Watch Café

In the midst of all the commotion along South Church Street, another renovation project has begun to percolate at 1726 Glidewell Drive. This site off of University Drive had previously been home to a Red Lobster location until the restaurant chain decided to pull out of Burlington in 2024.

The building itself changed hands about a year and half before the restaurant went belly up, and in August of 2024, it was sold yet again to a Winston-Salem-based firm called Gemcap Development.

At about the same time that Gemcap finalized the purchase of this property, a pre-application conference took place with city officials about a “potential proposed Whata-burger” in this location.

The inspection records for this site contain no further mention of the burger chain, which currently has a new eatery in the offing in Mebane. In the meantime, Gemcap applied for a building permit in the fall of 2024 in order to embark on an “interior renovation for a new restaurant tenant.”

In its description of this project, the property owner indicated that it planned to install “new interior partitions,” a “new HVAC” system, and “new commercial kitchen equipment,” along with “new interior finishes and furnishings.” Gemcap also alluded to some door replacements and a new paint job as well as “a proposed 465-s[quare] f[oot] patio with new slab and railing.”

The city went on to approve this permit on February 10 of this year. In the meantime, the property owner submitted some additional paperwork that began to illuminate the identity of the restaurant’s future tenant.

Known as “First Watch,” this Florida-based chain describes itself as a “daytime dining concept” that serves “made-to-order” cuisine for breakfast, brunch, and lunch. The company prides itself on a menu that varies with the seasons, a penchant for fresh ingredients, and a commitment to quality that it claims “never skips a beet.”

Last summer, the chain’s parent – the First Watch Restaurant Group – announced that it had acquired 21 franchise locations in North Carolina as part of a “long-term growth strategy.”

Last week, the company released an annual financial report for 2024 that boasted of $1 billion in revenues from its 29-state network of restaurants, which includes 489 company-owned eateries and another 83 franchise locations. The chain’s nearest existing locations are situated in Chapel Hill and Durham.

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The Maple Plan by LGI Homes at Middlefield Towns

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The No. 15-seed Vermont women's basketball team has drawn No. 2 NC State in the 2025 NCAA Tournament.

Vermont and NC State landed in the Spokane Region and will play Saturday, March 22 in a first-round game at Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh, North Carolina. The Wolfpack are the first- and second-round hosts March 21-24 in Raleigh.

The Vermont-NC State game set for a 2 p.m. tip-off on ESPN.

The Catamounts (21-12) punched the program's eighth ticket to March Madness on Friday night, seizing a 62-55 road victory over top-seeded Albany in the America East Conference championship game.

The Catamounts are returning to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2023. This is the second time in head coach Alisa Kresge's seven-year tenure that the Catamounts have qualified for the Big Dance.

What to know about Vermont women's basketball's opponent?

NC State (26-6) won the ACC regular season championship with a 16-2 record in conference play. The Wolfpack advanced to the ACC tournament championship game before falling to Duke with a 76-62 loss.

A major factor will be how healthy Wolfpack's star guard Aziaha James will be. James left the ACC championship game in the first half after a hard fall, but returned in the second half.

Vermont women's basketball's previous NCAA Tournament experience

The Catamounts have made seven previous trips to March Madness. They completed back-to-back perfect regular seasons in 1992 and 1993, but lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament both times including at home in 1993.

Vermont made it three straight appearances in 1993. The Cats also made it in 2000, 2009, 2010 and 2023. In 2010, they captured their first-round win over No. 7 Wisconsin for the program's first NCAA Tournament victory.

Vermont is 1-7 all-time in March Madness.

Contact Judith Altneu at [email protected]. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter: @Judith_Altneu.

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