By Kyle Coppola
Demolition Has Begun On The Villages Chick-Fil-A
Demolition crews are currently in the middle of tearing apart the popular restaurant. Chick-Fil-A closed its doors March 30th for an extensive renovation that will include the demolition of most if not all of the structure. The building opened its doors in 2006 and has had a few changes over the years. Changes included new paint on the exterior and the addition of employees fitted with iPads to speed orders along as the drive through lines grew too long for the location.
The new building will incorporate two drive through lanes like many new modern Chick locations. This particular location has suffered from long wait times and often bottlenecks that blocked the entrance to Outback Steakhouse and other nearby businesses. The new building will also eliminate the children’s play structure for the addition of more seating.
(Crews were tearing wires out of the building ahead of a major renovation of the facility.)
Crews were seen demolishing the interior of the building which we were not allowed into. They had also started to rip wires out of the building for its ultimate demolition which will be on the horizon. For now the building still stands but the gutted interior and the continued demolition of the play area is ongoing. Ultimately this is one of the final views of the pre-renovated facility. We asked to go inside to get a view of the interior demolition but were denied access.
The building itself will be completely redesigned from the ground up. The Mount Dora Chick-Fil-A is a very close sister of this building. The original locations looked almost identical. The newly renovated Mount Dora Chick-Fil-A suffered from many of the same things that The Villages Chick-Fil-A did but since the remodel many of those issues were remedied.
The new building will have dedicated areas for food delivery services such as DoorDash, UberEats and others. The lines will be less crowded. The elimination of the children’s play structure has been a hot topic as of late. Unfortunately the times are changing and more seating is necessary. Children’s play areas were closed in many places across the country for 2 plus years and many have never returned since the Covid pandemic.
(What used to be booths, chairs, tables and trash bins await to be thrown in the dumpster.)
The elimination of the children’s play area should increase the seating capacity to a much larger number than the current building. At times during lunch hours there was no seating available at all for customers to eat their meals. WE look forward to the continued construction at this location. The estimated time for the new building to be built is around 8-12 weeks.
Kyle Coppola was born in Newton, Massachusetts and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communications from Curry College in 2016. After traveling to Florida on a family vacation, he decided he could not get enough of the warm weather and made the move from snowy Massachusetts to central Florida 8 years ago.
For the last decade Kyle has gained valuable experience in social media content creation, marketing and sales, writing, video production, sports announcing and even broadcasting for local radio stations, such as FM 102.9 in The Villages and FM 91.5 in Massachusetts. Every year he volunteers at The Villages Charter High School as a play-by-play sports announcer for the football games as well as a public address announcer for the basketball games, including the annual Battle at The Villages Tournament.
Outside the office Kyle is a husband and father to two beautiful girls along with their cat. In his spare time he likes to spend time with his family, travel, play golf and swim. He is also a huge sports junkie and even bigger motorsports fan and loves to attend racing events when he can.
