BENNINGTON — Plans for a new Bennington Burger King restaurant won quick approval Tuesday from the Development Review Board.
The restaurant with drive-thru lanes is planned for a now-vacant lot at 216 Northside Drive, located between the main entrance to the Monument Plaza shopping center and the Best Western motel site.
Bennington’s longtime Burger King restaurant off Kocher Drive closed in September after 40 years in operation.
The planned restaurant will have a new, more subdued color scheme, in contrast to the bright orange, tan and red scheme that Burger King used when the 3,000-square-foot former restaurant opened in 1980.
Representatives of the developer, Carrolls, LLC, which holds hundreds of franchises in the fast-food chain, said the planned Burger King will be one of the first constructed in the most recent building style.
The parcel will have two access points, one being the shopping center’s main entrance near the roundabout on Northside Drive, and the other on the western side near the motel.
Developers said the building will have 3,200 square feet of floor space, and 30 percent of the site will be green space.
As part of the project, the current .53-acre lot will be expanded into the parking area for the PriceChopper market and other stores in the center to create a .83-acre lot.
The restaurant site plans were prepared by Bohler Engineering of Albany, N.Y., and the restaurant is being developed by Carrolls, LLC, or Carrolls Restaurant Group, which is based in Syracuse, N.Y.
After hearing a description of the project from Assistant Town Manager and Planning Director Daniel Monks and representatives from the developer, the board voted unanimously to approve the project.
The parcel at 216 Northside Drive was acquired in 2012 by BLS Bennington Outlot, which is affiliated with Redstone Investments, the shopping center ownership group, for $593,000 from Charles and Janet Wells.
Wells operated a gun shop and gas station there for many years. The gas station and shop have since been razed.