On Friday, July 22, Fate residents said hello at the grand opening of a new Taco Bell restaurant at 120 Memorial Parkway, next to the new Fresh grocery store.
Fate City Council approved the site plan on July 6, 2020 as part of the Fate Village Planned Development (PD), and construction started in the early part of April 2022. The town estimates that Taco Bell will generate approximately $15,000 annually in sales tax revenue.
This location is a franchise owned by Southern Multifoods, Inc.. The Fate Tribune contacted Southern Multifoods for comments, but they were unable to provide us with an exact number of anticipated jobs that would be available to the local economy. However, a local representative, Corey Paulk, stated that typically they would employ about 25 people per location.
Mr. Paulk caused a bit of a stir on Facebook over the weekend when he stated, “We’re excited to be part of the community. It took a little greasing of the city political wheels but we’re glad we made it here.”
The Fate Tribune looked deeper into the issue and exactly what the “greasing” of the wheels means. After confirming with the town that no economic incentives were provided to the owner, and nothing of value was given to any of the City Council, it appears that Mr. Paulk’s comments were simply light-hearted hyperbole.
The building pad was already zoned Retail, so there is little the town could do to either incentivize or prevent a restaurant such as Taco Bell from being placed in that location.
Southern Multifoods, Inc. owns approximately 111 Taco Bell locations in Texas. As of the date of this publication, they are accepting applications for employment in the Fate location.
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