Olive Garden could bring 100 jobs to Danvers

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September 2, 2010

By Ethan Forman Staff writer The Salem News Thu Sep 02, 2010, 12:04 AM EDT

DANVERS — A much anticipated Olive Garden restaurant may soon spring up along Route 114, according to a plan filed with the Planning Board.

The Italian-themed restaurant would not only add to the number of eateries in town, it would bring 100 full- and part-time jobs with it, Senior Planner Kate Day said.

The board opened a public hearing on the proposal Aug. 24, but it did not take further action, Day said, who added, "There seems to be significant interest" in having an Olive Garden in town.

The board wants more information about traffic and the impact the restaurant might have on the busy Garden Street intersection with Route 114, Day said. The next Planning Board hearing on the Olive Garden is Sept. 28.

The national restaurant chain has the catchphrase: "When you are here, you are family." Its ads can be seen regularly on TV.

But if you want to eat at an Olive Garden, the closest one to the North Shore is in Methuen, in the Merrimack Valley, more than 18 miles away.

Developers are proposing to locate the Olive Garden on a pad at 153 Andover St. toward the front of a site that contains a massive Lowe's Home Improvement warehouse.

When Lowe's and an office complex were being developed in 1999 on a 26-acre site, developers set aside an area to accommodate a 10,000-square-foot retail store adjacent to a stormwater management system at the front of the parcel. The land is owned by Lowe's.

Developers of the Olive Garden are proposing a smaller, 7,600-square-foot eatery, so traffic from it would be less than if the larger retail store were built, according to a traffic study in town records.

Access to the restaurant would be from the existing Lowe's driveways on Andover Street (Route 114) and Garden Street, Day said.

Planning Board members, however, want to learn more about plans to fence in water detention basins, asked that there be no outdoor ambient music and asked about traffic improvements on Garden Street, according to town records.

Developers are proposing the hours of 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week, except Thanksgiving and Christmas. There are no plans for exterior seating or entertainment.

The developer is GMRI Inc., which does business as the Olive Garden. GMRI's parent is Darden Restaurants of Florida, the largest casual dining chain restaurant company in the world, with 1,852 restaurants under several brands.

Darden's brands include Red Lobster and The Capital Grille. The Olive Garden chain was developed by General Mills Inc., but the company spun the Olive Garden, along with Darden, off in 1995, according to Darden's and the Olive Garden's website.

Staff writer Ethan Forman can be reached at 978-338-2673 or by e-mail at eforman@salemnews.com.

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