Maumee’s Fast Food Restaurants Serving Up Major Changes

BY MIKE McCARTHY | MIRROR EDITOR — Three of Maumee’s fast food restaurants along Conant Street will be undergoing major facelifts this spring and summer, with new construction plans in the works for KFC, Wendy’s and Burger King.

Here is a brief rundown of each of those plans for this year:

KFC

KFC will soon begin construction of a new restaurant and drive-thru at its 1010 Conant St. location, nearly 21 months after the former facility suffered a major kitchen fire in June of 2021. The former building was demolished after the fire investigation was completed and the lot has remained vacant since that time.

The city has approved the final site plan and development agreement and has authorized construction for the new KFC building, which will feature a smaller footprint than the previous restaurant.

Earth-moving equipment is already on-site and construction flags have been staked out. Work could begin any day on the project, with an expected completion date by late spring.

Wendy’s

Plans call for the current Wendy’s restaurant at 914 Conant St. to be demolished sometime this spring and replaced with a new building later this spring or early summer.

The final site plan and conceptual drawings have been approved by the city, and the only remaining hurdle is for the development agreement to be signed by officials at Wendy’s, according to Maumee city administrator Patrick Burtch.

Burger King

The Burger King project at 713 Conant St. will feature a renovation of the current restaurant along with additional new construction for the expansion of the dining area.

The restaurant’s drive-thru lanes will be modified and the ingress and egress lanes on Conant Street will be relocated from their present configuration near GenoaBank and West Sophia Street to a more central location in the 700 block of Conant Street, closer to the Illinois Avenue intersection and the Little Caesars Pizza store, located at 731 Conant St.

This move is intended to alleviate some of the traffic congestion in the northbound right lane of Conant Street for vehicles traveling in the right-turn-only lane as they approach the Anthony Wayne Trail intersection.

In order to achieve this goal, the city purchased a one-story building at 721 Conant St. early last year, with the intention of selling the building to Burger King management, so that they could demolish it in order to create a new exit and entranceway to the restaurant from Conant Street. 

A development agreement and final site plan from Bennett Management Corp., the local franchisee of Burger King, will be required before the project can move forward.