[Kathleen Desmond]: Good evening, everyone. Just, we waited till 605 or so to see if there were any additional people who are going to join the meeting. My name is Kathleen Desmond, an attorney with touch tomorrow offices and reading. I'm here this evening with the development team for raising King's restaurants, including Adam Karachi. senior property development manager of Raising Cane Restaurants. Karen Johnson, who is the vice president of development with Charter Realty. She's here on behalf of Fellsway Plaza Limited Partnership, the owner of the plaza, one of the owners of the plaza. Project engineer, Eric DeBrule of Bowler Engineering. Project architect, Jeffrey Poizner and Dustin Johnston of ADA Architects. And project traffic engineer, Patrick Dunford, senior project manager with BHP Engineering and Consulting. First of all, we'd like to thank you for attending this community meeting tonight and taking time out of your evening. I know that there's Christmas shopping to be done and a Patriots game at eight. The project is proposed by Raising Cane's Restaurant contemplates the construction of an approximately 3,326 square foot eat-in and drive-through restaurant to be located within the Fells White Plaza and adjacent to what is now Eastern Bank. Pell's Way Plaza itself is located within the commercial C1 district. It's anticipated that raising canes will be filing for site plan review and a special permit from city council by year end or early January. The purpose of this meeting is to introduce the project to the neighborhood and obtain community feedback. We anticipate that the presentation itself will run approximately 15 to 20 minutes. Following the presentation, there'll be an opportunity for questions and comments. We've allocated about an hour or so for this meeting in the event neighbors have questions and comments and it runs that long. In terms of ground rules, I would ask that you keep yourself muted until you're called on to speak. And in addition to asking questions to the group, you can also put your questions and comments in the chat and we'll run through those for the last five minutes, five to 10 minutes of the meeting. I would also ask that you refrain from direct messaging of questions during the meeting as it presents somewhat of a distraction in answering questions from the group. With that, I will turn the meeting over to Adam Caracci, senior property development manager of Raising Cane's Restaurant, LLC. Adam.
[NSwzzTDsSZ4_SPEAKER_05]: Thank you, Kathleen. I'm going to go ahead and share my screen and bring up a presentation to explain a little bit about Raising Cane's.
[Unidentified]: Can you see my screen? All right.
[NSwzzTDsSZ4_SPEAKER_05]: So Raising Cane's was founded in 1996 by Todd Graves. We're still a family owned company. His family owns the whole thing. And currently there are about just under 700 locations throughout about 35 states in the U.S. as well as locations in the Middle East. We're entirely corporately run and we serve one thing and that is the quality chicken finger meal, our one love. And so that's just chicken finger strips, Texas toast, french fries, coleslaw, and sauce, which you can see here. And the only variation of that is the number of chicken fingers that you can order. There's no milkshakes, there's no salads. It's a simple, refined menu that we call focused.
[Adam Hurtubise]: And that helps with our operations and make us the best at what we are in the industry.
[NSwzzTDsSZ4_SPEAKER_05]: So Todd founded the first location outside the North Gates of LSU in Baton Rouge back in 96. He is really a story of an entrepreneur that knew what he wanted. He started dreaming this up in the late 80s, went to school, saved and pitched this idea to anybody that would listen. And then ultimately graduated from UGA and went and worked as a boiler maker in this bottom left photo, and as a salmon fisherman in the second from right bottom photo. So raised the funds to start the first restaurant with the help of a small SBA loan. He opened the first restaurant in August of 1996, like I said, outside of LSU, and the rest is history. Raising Canes was named after Todd's dog at the time, Cane. And it just was something that a friend had suggested and it stuck. And that's why our logo is the yellow lab. During the pandemic, we really wanted to focus on our crew members and we did not lay anybody off. In fact, we hired more people and we added more stores through the pandemic as drive-through restaurants became one of the main ways that people were eating. And so we created a crew fund for people that may have been struggling due to the pandemic. And we actually raised up of $2 million.
[Adam Hurtubise]: for anything that our crew might need. Pretty large social media presence.
[NSwzzTDsSZ4_SPEAKER_05]: As you can see here, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, we're on all of those. And it's a good way to see who we are as a brand and where we get back to the community. Speaking of community, we are involved in six areas, but mainly entrepreneurship, as we started as a small business, animal welfare, since our mascot is the yellow lab, and giving back to education, active lifestyles, and then pretty much whatever else you can ask for. Each restaurant has a dedicated community marketing manager whose sole job is to find ways to give back to your community. And so this is not somebody who's spread thin across a region, this is somebody that works with Medford. And then again, one love, you can see here, it's who we are. You might see that we have some mobile food trucks that may come to the area soon as we have a few other locations under construction around Boston. And you can see here some other people and what they've posted about us on social media. So again, I recommend check that out. And with that, I am pretty much done with my presentation and will yield to Eric to talk about site plan.
[39QZXkKLDII_SPEAKER_10]: All right, thank you, Adam. All right, so I'm just sharing an aerial view of the oversight. So the least areas within the Fells White Plaza and more specifically in a very underutilized area of the site, there's essentially about 70 parking spaces and otherwise just pavement and some end cap parking landscape islands. Under existing conditions, you've got Riverside Avenue kind of running horizontally across the page, and it intersects with Fellsway Ave. And then the shopping center has various points of entry, but approximate to the site, you've got two plaza driveway entrances, one off of Fellsway and one off of Riverside. And then it's bounded by the south by a shopping plaza drive aisle. And again, I'm just hovering with my mouse in that demise area, which is about 31,000 square feet of a lease area. What raising canes again is proposing it's about a 3300 square foot restaurant. we've got about 23 parking spaces proximate to to the building, we made a strong focus on pedestrian connectivity. So there's a connection from Riverside, new sidewalk cut through right from Riverside to connect to the existing public sidewalks. And that would connect and be fully accessible right to the front door, as well as off of Fellsway, we've got a full sidewalk that wraps around and then into the site. There's some bike parking just outside of the front door located again at the front. building has interior seating as well as exterior patio seating which will be seasonal. There is a canopy overhang over the patio seating but that would effectively be on the exterior of the building located here. Relative to landscaping we're about actually a net increase in total green space on the site. So effectively we're I'm going to continue the frontage buffering all the way, wrap it around the front. We're adding additional landscape buffering around these two edges of the property, and then just a handful of different internal landscape areas. Right now, we've just colored it green, but it will be a fairly robust landscape plan with several hundred new plantings, trees, shrubs, ground covers, kind of multi-level plantings. that will kind of bloom different colors throughout the different seasons. That's something that Grazing Canes is very adamant about is that they're doing their part and really doing the best they can relative to landscaping and just making sure the site looks as good as it possibly can. There's a drive-through component naturally to this site. The way it works, obviously you've got connectivity throughout the plaza through a couple of different site driveways to get to the property. We have one proposed curb cut into the lease area. And then the drive-through effectively, you've got two entering lanes. And then there is underneath this canopy, there are two menu boards. Then you pull forward and then there are windows where you pick up your meals. So under normal operating conditions, those menu boards and speakers would be functional. And then during peak hours, and Adam, if you want to speak to it, I can turn it back over to you if you want to speak to just generally under your peak operating conditions, how you kind of differentiate yourself from some of your other competitors.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Absolutely. Thanks, Eric.
[NSwzzTDsSZ4_SPEAKER_05]: So we use a dual drive-through system, which means that during peak times, there are crew members out in the drive-through. both lanes are open, they're taking payment and orders via tablet, that's cash or card, and they're ushering cars forward to really maximize the efficiency of the drive-thru. During non-peak hours, the drive-thru works like any other drive-thru with an order board and pay and pickup windows.
[Unidentified]: Perfect.
[39QZXkKLDII_SPEAKER_10]: So I think that's really the high level. relative to the site layout and landscaping and connectivity to the site.
[Adam Hurtubise]: So I will, segueing off of this, just go over the floor plan and the elevation briefly. So here's a floor plan for the restaurant.
[NSwzzTDsSZ4_SPEAKER_05]: It's about 50 interior seats and about 18, 20 outdoor seats. Vestibules, large dining room area. Majority of the building is kitchen and service area. Restrooms inside of the space. Architecturally, it's kind of a warehouse feel on the inside, so vaulted ceilings, exposed ceilings. We have a bit of a funky design, like very, It's a very exciting interior. So there's disco balls, which is a nod to the first restaurant where Todd could only afford a disco ball to fill a skylight that was in the existing space. And there's a velvet Elvis because that's what they had in the first restaurant. And so a lot of tradition and history that's followed to all of our locations. And then this is what the exterior would look like. That's a mixture of materials. There's variation in the facades, breaking up with glass, brick, metal. So it's not just a box like you see with some other places. This utilizes, again, there's some mesh metal to screen around the roof, as well as brick on the parapet, different types of brick materials here. storefront glass storefront system, and then there's a red one tower on the front facade that is our one love.
[Adam Hurtubise]: So with that, I will stop sharing and let Eric, if there's anything else you'd like to discuss.
[Kathleen Desmond]: Do you want to show the audience what the finished products look like, the two photographs that you have, what it looks like?
[Adam Hurtubise]: Absolutely.
[NSwzzTDsSZ4_SPEAKER_05]: So during the daytime, this is what a new restaurant in the Dallas Fort Worth area looks like. This one would be modified to match your community a little bit more. So It wouldn't exactly look like this, but it's the same building type.
[Adam Hurtubise]: And then there is a evening view that looks like this.
[NSwzzTDsSZ4_SPEAKER_05]: So there's wall washers, there's backlighting to kind of give it some interest and make it look more, forgive me, I'm not an architect, look more interesting and inviting to the community.
[Unidentified]: Thanks, Kathleen.
[Kathleen Desmond]: And with that, I think we can take questions from anyone who should have any questions that we can answer. I don't see anything in the chat, but certainly. Hi.
[SPEAKER_03]: I have a question about traffic flow. Like on Riverside Ave, to get into and out of the shopping center, it's going to be sometimes gets really busy. So how would that affect the drive-thru? Especially when you have two openings going to the drive-thru, do you think it will cause any backup?
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[39QZXkKLDII_SPEAKER_01]: Good evening. My name's Pat Dunford. I'm a traffic engineer with VHB. Eric, if you could put up the site plan again, maybe one of the colored versions, just so I can have something to point to.
[Unidentified]: All right.
[39QZXkKLDII_SPEAKER_01]: Okay, thank you Eric and sorry for the short notice on that. So it sounds like you're obviously familiar with the site the bank on the left, and then here where we're proposing canes. So the location was picked it's in a relatively remote corner of the parking lot. So what we're doing is dropping the building in that vicinity, but at the same time, closing off some of the internal driveway curb cuts. If you look right where the hand is moving across the stream, there's currently two openings at that point, which would have led directly into the drive-through, but it would also lead to a lot of really chaos for lack of a better word. So what we decided to do was close those off and consolidate the traffic. So it's primarily going to be coming in at the driveway to the left. Um, physically there's nothing stopping you from using the driveway even further left, but the focal point of these generally will be the drive-through. So the traffic would expect, would go in there, go counterclockwise around the building. And, um, both Eric and Adam had described the drive-through setup where the dual lane drive-through helps avoid any serious backup of the cars in line. Even beyond that, you have about another probably 275 feet from coming off the Fells Way until you enter the site. So there's ample room at that point. So there's not gonna be any queuing. That's certainly gonna go back that far. But by the same token, it gives a nice clean entry coming off at 28 heading southbound. You can immediately turn in to access the drive-through. On the upper left-hand side of the screen, Riverside Avenue, the existing intersection there, where you have the single lane coming in and the left and the right coming out, that is going to remain unchanged, and we are expecting that some of our traffic will come out there. We are in the midst of doing a pretty elaborate traffic study looking pretty far beyond what's on the screen here, because there's other access and egress points behind Ocean State Job Lot, And further south, there's multiple driveways along 28. So not everyone is going to be coming in or out at any one point on Riverside or on the Fellsway. So it's going to be somewhat spread out. But that's what we're looking at to make sure we're consolidating it appropriately and directing it into the site in an orderly manner. So that's kind of the game plan. What we're hoping for tonight is just to get any input or comments you have. I've been working out in the site since I think 1997. So I've seen a lot, but you're out here every day, so you have seen more. So if there's something particular, let me know when we can delve into it further.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, thank you. And then I was thinking for that drive-through, it will be hard to make a U-turn from that entrance, because if you come in from Middlesex Fells Bay and then you try to make that, I can't, I don't know if it would be that turns of maneuverability of your car.
[39QZXkKLDII_SPEAKER_01]: No, that's a very good question. That's one of the first things both the traffic engineers and the site designers look at. So you can make that turn coming in and we have engineering programs where we can make sure that a car can make the turn comfortably. And that's also one of the other benefits of having two entry lanes. If you have someone with perhaps a larger SUV, maybe that's a little tight for them in the outer lane, but they'd certainly be able to make the inner one. So that redundancy has a kind of a built-in benefit to it.
[SPEAKER_03]: All right, thank you so much. No, thank you.
[Unidentified]: Does anyone else have any questions?
[Kathleen Desmond]: I don't see anyone who has any questions and I don't see anything in the chat at this point. So do you want to say anything in conclusion?
[NSwzzTDsSZ4_SPEAKER_05]: Absolutely. We're very excited to be joining this community and look forward to working with you all over the next few months to hopefully make this a reality.
[Kathleen Desmond]: Again, we'd like to thank you all for attending the meeting this evening. I know it's a busy time of year and certainly wish you all a good holiday. And, you know, thank you for your comments and anything else. I believe my email address is on the about notice letter that was sent out. So certainly if there's anything you'd like to ask after tonight's meeting, feel free to email me with those questions and I can get those off to the team. So with that, I guess we'll say goodnight and have a nice holiday. Thank you.