Three popular food chains are coming to one of Turlock’s busiest shopping areas

A trio of new chain restaurants appear to be coming soon to the southern edge of Turlock’s bustling Monte Vista Crossings shopping center.

The intersection of Tuolumne Road and Countryside Drive will see the city’s first Wienerschnitzel and Farmer Boys restaurants and possibly a Popeyes Louisiana Chicken go up later this year. The hot dog chain Wienerschnitzel will be part of a new retail space being constructed at the southwestern corner of the popular Monte Vista Crossings complex. The Farmer Boys and a proposed Popeyes Louisiana Chicken would be part of a new, separate center kitty-corner from that called the Turlock Corners Retail Plaza.

According to site designs submitted to the Turlock Planning Commission, Turlock Corners at 2530 W. Tuolumne Road will have three buildings on the approximately 3-acre lot. They include the Farmer Boys, which has been confirmed, and a Popeyes, which is in the final stages of negotiations with the developer. Both those standalone restaurants will have drive-thrus and the complex has another up-to 16,000-square-foot space that could be a single or multi-tenant building.

Stockton-based developer Scott Rishwain is behind the Turlock Corners project, his first in Turlock. He hopes to start initial work on the site within three months and it should be all rented out by the end of the year at the latest.

“I’m really excited about it; just looking across the street and seeing what is there it’s ground zero. It’s where you want to be in Turlock. It’s an exciting project, small but fun,” he said.

As I confirmed last fall, Rafael Armenta Jr., whose family owns a series of El Pollo Loco and Dickey’s BBQ Pit franchises in the Central Valley as well as the just-opened Farmer Boys in Modesto, will operate the new Farmer Boys. Armento said they hope to begin construction on the new restaurant by the summer and have it open in the fall. It should be around 3,300-square-feet and employ a staff of about 50. The proposed Popeyes will be 2,700-square-feet and be situated on the southern side of the complex that will border Centennial Park.

But that’s not all that’s happening at the busy Tuolumne-Countryside corner. Groundwork has begun on the planned Florsheim Homes’ Rose Verde housing development, which sits next to the Home Depot on the northeast corner of the intersection. The 107-unit subdivision will consist of single-family homes. The plan was first approved by the Turlock City Council in 2014 when it was called the Monte Verde subdivision. The site has been fenced off and initial infrastructure work is now underway.

So expect to see a lot of heavy machinery at that corner for the foreseeable future. And get ready to eat.

This story was originally published January 13, 2018 at 3:23 PM with the headline "Three popular food chains are coming to one of Turlock’s busiest shopping areas."