Construction on a new fast-food dining option is progressing in Allegheny Township.
A new Taco Bell restaurant is expected to open as early as next month at 500 Hyde Park Road in Allegheny Plaza, but project officials are keeping mum on an opening date.
On Tuesday, a spokesman from PBI Construction of Gibsonia, which is working on the new restaurant, said only that the project is on schedule.
In August, a representative from the developer, Charter Foods of Morristown, Tenn., told Township Manager Greg Primm the project was expected to take four to six months to complete.
“No one has told me any differently,” Primm said last week.
Groundbreaking on the project was delayed more than a year because of a now-resolved sewer line issue that township officials had to correct.
The plaza, owned by Rosen Management of Jericho, N.Y., previously maintained its own sewer system.
That system since has been decommissioned, and the plaza has tapped into the township’s sewage system.
A representative from Charter Foods declined Tuesday to comment on the project’s completion date.
According to its website, Charter Foods is a Yum! Brands franchisee. It has more than 200 Long John Silver’s, KFC and Taco Bell locations in the U.S.
Township officials gave the go-ahead on the project in August.
The restaurant will be a standalone establishment, not a combination KFC-Taco Bell.
A Taco Bell flyer advertising immediate openings for team and shift leaders at the new location reads “opening soon.”
The plaza has about 500 parking spots, and Taco Bell will offer drive-thru and dine-in service.
Supervisor-elect Jamie Morabito said he’s optimistic the new eatery will kick-start more new businesses in the township.
“I am hopeful this will start the trend of other businesses wanting to get on board and fill some of the vacant storefronts,” Morabito said. “I want the businesses to understand I will do everything I can to help them. I feel like this is the beginning of bringing back our plazas like they once used to be.”
Big Lots is the only business occupying the strip mall section of the plaza.
A Pizza Hut and AutoZone, both standalone businesses in the plaza, remain. But Pizza Hut is scheduled to relocate across the street to Hyde Park Plaza in 2022.
