Midtown Taco Bell could reopen in October
Work continues on the new midtown Taco Bell across from ORNL Credit Union on North Charles G. Seivers Boulevard. The old building was torn down in June. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
The old store was demolished in June to make way for an entirely new building encompassing all of the newest Taco Bell store features, said Michael Border, chief development officer of the Birmingham-based Tacala Companies LLC.
That company also owns the Taco Bell next to Interstate 75, Exit 122, in Clinton.
“We just framed that Friday and Saturday,” Border said Monday of the new building at 1114 N. Charles G. Seivers Blvd, across from ORNL Federal Credit Union. “We’ve got a crew of framers that can frame a building in 10 hours.
“We will be ready by the end of next month, and probably will be opening the first week of October, I would guess. We have all of our stuff. We don’t have to wait for a walk-in cooler or anything like that.”
The contractor just poured the concrete pad for the building about a week ago.
“The pad the building sits on is the key,” Border said. “After that, it takes us about 54 days to finish. We’re on our way there. We loved our old building, but we’re excited to have a new one.”
The new Taco Bell will have a different layout, Border said.
“It will be a 44-seat building, which is our newest building,” he said. “On both sides of the dining room, we will have moveable tabletops, with accessibility for wheelchairs, even with the USB ports.”
And to answer a question that came up when the I-75 location was being built in late 2019: No, there will be no beer sold at the newest Taco Bell, Border said.
“One of the main reasons we don’t sell beer is because most of our customers are underage,” he said.
The new location will have outside patio dining facilities, he said.
Tacala, one of the nation’s largest Taco Bell franchisees, operates about 270 of the restaurants across the Southeast and Texas.