"Fast food graveyard" shows signs of life after Bird Call restaurant buys empty Burger King
Look, we will be upfront, the Town of Silverthorne told CBS News Colorado it's not fair to call the area near the exit along Interstate 70 a "fast-food graveyard," but what else do you call a spot where three fast-food restaurants have died, two of which in the last few months?
"We have had several of the restaurants in that area that have recently closed in the past couple of years," Mark Leidal, Assitant Town Manager of Silverthorne told CBS News Colorado Mountain Newsroom Reporter Spencer Wilson Wednesday.
"They are all three adjacent to each other and on Stephens Way."
Now the Denver-based fried chicken sandwich restaurant Bird Call is planning to take over the old Burger King building, and scrape and rebuild. The Town of Silverthorne said they've already purchased the property, and are now starting to go through the next steps to get built up.
"It is a two-step process that we would go through before we send it to the town council," Leidal explained.
Still, the question remains... what happened to the restaurants that closed up shop? There's a McDonald's nearby as well which is still open, Leidal said it was recently renovated. The Arby's that closed at that location was also slated for a remodel, then a rebuild, then another remodel but ultimately decided to close down earlier this year.
Pizza Hut closed only weeks ago, posting a sign on the door saying "We are permanently closed, thanks for your business!" The Burger King, adorned with plywood over the windows, has been vacant for years at this point.
Leidal said his best guess as to why these businesses struggled is because of staffing.
"Staffing is difficult and we are seeing businesses have had to limit hours because of operation because staffing has been quite difficult."
That could stem from wage/housing differences. Summit County has been struggling for years with rising costs for housing in the resort community, making getting by on lower-end salaries more difficult and erasing some of the workforces at that pay scale entirely. Still, with those challenges without easy answers, Silverthrone is hopeful the appearance of Bird Call signals a possibility for growth in an otherwise empty plot in town.
"I feel confident about it. Most restaurants that we are seeing here in the community have been successful, I think employees have been the trick."
