A popular fast food restaurant is on its way back to Bowling Green after breaking the hearts of many when it closed its doors last year.

A corporate-owned Dairy Queen will be built at 2430 Nashville Road, at a cost of $709,000, according to the company’s building permit application.

Mike Kull, president of Dairy Queen Corp., won’t speak to local media about the new store until Monday, when he is &#8220legally able to,” according to Dean Peters, corporate communications spokesman for Dairy Queen.

The local contractor on the project is Sunbelt Construction, which said the construction should start in February and end in June, according to executive assistant Laurie Priddy.

The project was originally expected to begin in October and end in April, but was delayed with the property’s closing, Priddy said.

The property closed in early January, according to Alex Nottmeier, commercial Realtor for Neal Turner Realty.

The restaurant will be a 3,900 square-foot building on the corner of Nashville Road and Yale Avenue, and will include 46 parking spaces, and a 40-foot patio.

A franchise-owned Dairy Queen store at 2225 Russellville Road closed in February after 15 years of being in business when the owner of the franchise, Jerry Rizer, and the property owner in Lexington failed to agree on a lease renewal, Peters said.

For Howard Stuart, plans reviewer for the City of Bowling Green, Dairy Queen brings back childhood memories.

When Stuart, a Glasgow native, was in high school, a McDonald’s and Dairy Queen was built, he said.

&#8220Those were the only ones we had back then,” Stuart said.

Stuart said people may have felt adamant about a Dairy Queen coming back to Bowling Green because of &#8220the nostalgia of it,” he said.

About 99 percent of Dairy Queen stores are independently owned and operated franchises. The rest are corporate stores, according to Peters.

Texaco enters BG market this month; is located near I-65

What was once an abandoned skeleton of a former BP gas station on Three Springs Road was converted into a Texaco, according to District Manager Vetta White, and the store began operations on Jan. 5.

White said the owner, Dr. Atis Ikran of Elizabethtown, also owns stations in Cave City and Upton.

Ikran bought the store last summer.

The challenge remains for the store to shed its former BP image in the minds of customers, but White said even though some remnants of the former BP store remain – like the yellow and green &#8220Beverage Center” sign – the store is phasing in Texaco branded signage.

&#8220Now that it’s Texaco, (Ikran) moved a lot of things and opened up a lot of floor space,” White said. &#8220We’re going to try to keep the image of lower priced cigarettes.”

White said she was unsure of the cost to renovate the location.

Store hours are 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Saturday. On Sunday, the store opens at 7 a.m.

&#8220We do have pay at the pumps 24 hours a day. Even though we shut down at 11 p.m. you can still get gas 24 hours a day,” White said. &#8220We welcome everyone to come by and see us.”

There will be no beer or lottery sales at the store because of the owner’s religious beliefs, White said.

There is no affiliation between the Chevron across the street and the Texaco, even though the corporate powerhouses merged in 2001.

Waffle House to rebuild on Three Springs, will build parking lot on former site

A new Waffle House is expected to open in its former location at 150 Three Springs Road, at a cost of $400,000 – which includes demolition of the existing 1,584-square-foot building and the construction of a new 1,642-square-foot building, according to the building permit application.

A parking lot built on its former site will be shared with the Texaco gas station next door, manger Vetta White said.

By-Pass gas stations fade out; new restaurant may be on the horizon for spot

The Twin Oaks Center on Smallhouse Road and the Houchens Center at the corner of Cabell Drive and U.S 31-W By-Pass have gotten rid of its gas station centers.

Alan Reeves, owner of the Twin Oaks Center on Smallhouse Road and Broadway Avenue, said the Houchens-owned Jr. Food Store closed about six months ago, and the gas station was demolished not long after.

&#8220The lease was up and they decided to leave. Now we’re fixing up the place for renting,” Reeves said.

The Twin Oaks centers houses Pizza Hut, Marty Wilkins Allstate Insurance Company, and Dad’s Toys, a place where radio controlled airplanes are sold.

The Shell gas station that used to operate at the Houchens Market Center at 1589 U.S. 31-W By-Pass, is in the process of being demolished.

Owner David Browning contracted with Shell to take the station down after Jan. 1.

The self-serve gas station was built in 1975 and closed down officially about two to three years ago after making little profit, Browning said.

&#8220We just sold gas there,” Browning said. &#8220We can’t show a profit in selling gas by itself.”

The property is now under contract to sell to an outside investor who wants to build a restaurant in the location.

&#8220Must be some type of fast-food restaurant because the lot is so small,” Browning said.

But nothing can be done with the property until Browning gets clearance from the Environmental Protection Administration that the site is free from its gas tanks and any leftover chemicals.

An environmental test or site assessment must be performed to verify the lack of contaminants and a lengthy report must be generated on the site, both of which will take months, Browning said.