Finally, after some snags in securing financing and a touch of Alabama’s unpredictable weather, construction of Atmore’s new Sonic restaurant is moving full-speed ahead. If no further delays crop up, diners should be enjoying the restaurant’s wares in about five weeks.
“We’re a little behind schedule, but the owners say it’s supposed to be opening May 1,” Don DeClue, project superintendent for Ft. Worth, Texas-based Horizon General Contractors, said Monday (March 20). “We’ve got it framed and wrapped, and it should look totally different by the end of the week.”
Masonry crews were expected to arrive on Tuesday, and the concrete was to be poured on the northern parking area and some of the restaurant frontage that same day.
“Probably by the end of the week, we’ll have quite a bit of the concrete down, most of the brick up, most of the inside roughed in, and the sheetrock and FRP (fiber-reinforced plastic) going up,” DeClue said. “It shouldn’t take but about five, to five-and-a-half days to do the building itself. It’s a quick-paced job. The hard part will be waiting for the kitchen equipment to be installed.”
The company is able to put such a building up so quickly because it has its own crews to handle most of the construction aspects, eliminating the need for subcontractors and the bidding process.
“We have our own crews for most of the work,” said the project superintendent. “We bring them from one job to the next, so we already have cost factors.”
The 1,602 square-foot restaurant building is located on slightly less than an acre of land that abuts the Hardee’s restaurant in the commercial portion of Rivercane, just a few yards off Interstate 65.
In anticipation of the May 1 opening, online applications are currently being accepted for general manager, assistant manager, cooks, restaurant team members and car hops (those who can skate and those who can’t).
To apply, interested individuals should visit snagajob.com.