BIZNOTE FOLLOWUP: Update on Five Guys at Westwood Village

| West Seattle news | West Seattle restaurants | Westwood

The recent reopening of the remodeled Westwood Village McDonald’s has brought another round of questions about the status of the planned Five Guys burger joint next door. We first reported last May that they were on the way to the former Payless Shoe Source space on the shopping center’s south side. The first visible sign of the plan was door/window wrap in November. The company still isn’t commenting, and four more months have passed with no sign of activity. That might change soon – checking city files, we discovered the building permit was just approved this week, seven months after the application went in. Speaking of applications, the franchisee has a listing posted looking for managers to work in Tukwila and then “after four months” in West Seattle, so there’s another hint at their timetable. The chain already has 15 locations around the four-county metro area.

DC March 9, 2023 (4:21 pm)

Seven months for a building permit in existing buildings. Years of permits, and environmental and design review approval for new building/housing. Decades of ‘community engagement’, planning, bidding, and construction/delays for any transportation project. We really need to rethink the obstacles we have put in place to a thriving community/economy.

KT March 9, 2023 (4:55 pm)

I’d rather have a robust program to ensure development is safe, so when our big earthquake hits we won’t be like Turkey.But I agree 7 months seems excessive for an existing building, although they are doing extensive remodel due to kitchen installation, so much more complex in terms of infrastructure, etc than if it was another retail store replacing the shoe store.
- Mr J March 9, 2023 (7:37 pm)
  
  The whole process can be cumbersome and exhausting. Seven months isn’t that long, when SDCI is backed up it can be ten months plus. There’s also King County permitting you need to get in this case the Health Department which is the most frustrating of them all (not talking good safety – that comes later). There is a real barrier to opening a business with this sort of process, Five Guys has money and can take care of it easily. The county and city should have programs in place to help aide emerging businesses through this process. If you’re lucky you’ll be spending roughly; Architect 10k, Legal 3-5k, permitting 3-4k. That’s before the contractor too.
  - flimflam March 10, 2023 (10:20 am)
    
    I have to disagree – seven months is an extremely long time to wait out what should be a fairly straightforward process.
    - Mr J March 10, 2023 (1:20 pm)
      
      Yeah, I’m not coming out in support of long wait times, only that it could be worse.Considering this used to be a Payless and it’s a complete change of use I think they got off lucky.
Jeff March 10, 2023 (9:04 am)

If you don’t have these obstacles you will get awful gross buildings with hazards galore.
- Resident March 14, 2023 (12:58 am)
  
  The building is already there. So…
  - WS Res March 14, 2023 (7:07 am)
    
    Restaurants need things like fume hoods and grease traps and high-capacity electrical systems that can run huge walk-in freezers plus those fume hoods and a stable of electrical appliances. Cool with you if we make sure those things all are installed by qualified contractors and work properly before giving the go-ahead?

Under_Achiever March 9, 2023 (4:57 pm)

Five Guys should’ve just ‘occupied’ the space and worried about consequences later…

Overachiever March 10, 2023 (6:55 am)

Sure, cities just love it when businesses open and operate up without permitting, especially when food is involved. I’m sure if they did this the city would understand and apologize for taking so long and issue the permits post haste.

OneTimeCharley March 9, 2023 (6:16 pm)

I don’t read ‘the building permit was just approved this week, seven months after the application went in’ necessarily as an indictment of the city permitting process. Maybe Five Guys (or likely the local franchisee) was slow walking the entire project for some unknown reason.

Wimpy March 9, 2023 (6:44 pm)

Andros March 9, 2023 (6:56 pm)

It must be all that white tile they need to lay in there.

Everything but Poke March 9, 2023 (9:04 pm)

Speaking of restaurant openings. Any word on Just Poke? I thought it was scheduled for the end of February.

WSB March 9, 2023 (9:52 pm)

I haven’t squinted through the window lately to see what kind of progress they’re making!
- Peekaboo March 10, 2023 (6:57 am)
  
  I look in there from time to time on morning walks and last “peek” all that was in there, as of a month ago, are all the shoe shelves left over from the Payless days.
Mark P March 10, 2023 (10:39 am)

I messaged them on IG and the response was they are targeting a May opening, some other unknown permitting holdup got in the way of them resuming construction.

shotinthefoot March 10, 2023 (10:07 am)

it probably takes at least that long to get the weird new shoe smell out of there.

admyrl byrd March 10, 2023 (5:14 pm)

Vinyl takes a while to dissipate

DL March 11, 2023 (3:22 pm)

It’s amazing how many people already forgot that we were just in massive event called a pandemic that disrupted everything in our country and the rest of the world. And waves of sickness are still happening everyday and impacting everything. 7 months seen from that context is not that long. The myth of normal is strong.

WS Res March 14, 2023 (7:11 am)

Fun fact: yesterday I learned that having had COVID is associated with cognitive deficits including “delay discounting,” essentially the ability to delay gratification. Whether it’s the cause of these deficits or the result of them (“but I want to go to brunch!”) is anyone’s guess, but it doesn’t look good for Team Keep Your Hair On.

Mr. Big Thinker March 11, 2023 (9:48 pm)

Whoever designed the new McDonald’s parking lot shouldn’t have the traffic coming to the drive thru from the traffic stop light at 26th & Barton. It should be coming from inside the mall like it used to before the remodel. It’s a lot easier to get into line from inside the mall, and there’s a lot more space to wait inside the mall if the line gets real long.

Sorry, comment time is over.