It closed its location here eight years ago, but an Italian restaurant chain is scheduled to get back in business in Bowling Green.

A development company recently submitted a building permit application to construct an Olive Garden in Bowling Green.

If approved, the $1.25 million restaurant will locate at a corner of Scottsville Road and Ken Bale Boulevard.

The 7,440-square-foot building will sit on 1.85 acres. Construction will begin Aug. 24 and end in January, according to the application.

Dallas-based GHA Architecture/Development is in charge of the project. The company works with several restaurant chains, including Olive Garden, said Brian Fetz, project manager.

Olive Garden once had a large expansion program in the works, but the company recently scaled back its plan to concentrate on markets it’s most confident in, and that includes Bowling Green, Fetz said.

“It will be on schedule,” he said. “The outlook is good. They’ve done their demographics ahead of time.”

Olive Garden opened in Bowling Green in 1993 at 2450 Scottsville Road. It closed in 2001 when its parent company, Florida-based Darden Restaurants, converted the building into a Smokey Bones restaurant.

Since then, rumors about Olive Garden’s return have circulated often. Developers inquired about submitting site plans and a building permit in September.

At that time, both Olive Garden and job search Web sites listed management job openings in Bowling Green. Local positions are no longer listed on those Web sites. Neither Olive Garden nor Darden Restaurants returned numerous calls for comment from the Daily News.

The building permit application is being reviewed by three local agencies: BGMU, Public Works and Planning and Zoning. The application was awaiting approval from all three organizations as of Monday afternoon. The planning and zoning staff is reviewing issues such as platting and traffic, said Mac Yowell, planning engineer.

The application includes two properties, which would need to be combined into one lot. Developers will also need to coordinate plans with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet and get a drainage plan approved, among other tasks. By Monday afternoon, the staff was also waiting for final plat and infrastructure plans to be submitted.

“Once things have been accounted for, it will be ready to go,” Yowell said.

The reviews are standard procedure and, after the application is approved, workers can start construction on the restaurant, said Glenn Burns, city building inspector.

In most cases, the review process lasts up to two weeks, but the Olive Garden application might be approved more quickly because “our workload right now is not as heavy as it has been,” Burns said.