By Fay Simmons

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

The Wendy’s and Marco’s Pizza franchise principals “don’t understand what all this fuss is about” as they sought to argue why their Paradise Island restaurant project should receive planning permission. 

Chris Tsavoussis, who along with his brother, Terry, heads Aetos Holdings, questioned at Monday night’s Town Planning Committee public consultation why there was so much opposition to the proposal to convert the former Scotiabank branch when the adjacent shopping plaza hosts a Dunkin Donuts franchise, web shops and a liquor store.

He said: “We found an old dilapidated building on Paradise Island that we’d like very much to renovate and enhance. Wendy’s is a brand and Marco’s Pizza. They are some of the world’s best brands, and the fact that there’s Dunkin’ Donuts next door, there’s a barbecue place a few doors beyond that, there’s a web shop in the same shopping centre, there’s liquor stores...

“We see how that facility treats its garbage and what the view looks like to the public, and we know the way we operate, especially because it’s Paradise Island, a lot of extra care and attention would be given to that.

“So we don’t understand what all this fuss is about when the precedents have been set with a commercial shopping centre that exists and it’s there. Actually, we plan to raise the bar on what’s next to us by a significant amount. So I always tell the residents that their fears are unfounded. We just don’t quite get what this about.

Vaughn Roberts, Atlantis’ senior vice president of government affairs and special projects, reiterated the mega resort’s concerns about the extra traffic that the restaurant destination would bring to Paradise Island and where the infrastructure needed to operate the restaurant will be located.

He said: “One of the things I’m really curious about is just from the fast food operations - the infrastructure that’s needed to support it. With respect to when I drive by Wendy’s, I see a huge water tank facility. I see a huge trash compactor, and I sit in the loading area for you to bring in your produce and food.

“I also see parking. That bus also accommodates your employees, because I can’t imagine that everybody working for this Wendy’s is going to take public transportation or hustle across the bridge. I assume that some of the employees will come by car…”

Mr Tsavoussis said Aetos Holdings will provide transportation for their employees similar to the scheme that they use for staff at their Lynden Pindling International Airport (LPIA) location. He added that traffic existed in the area when Scotiabank occupied the site, and he anticipates Wendy’s generating “less traffic” than the bank.

He added: “Just like we run the facilities at the airport, we actually bus our people to and from work, so that is the scenario that we use in this instance and that would be how we would mitigate any sort of parking overflow.

“You know, the overflow used to exist before us with a bank there and the ATMs going and everything else. We anticipate less traffic than what they were putting out. The fact that all of our employees will, for the most part, be brought over.... we may have perhaps three employee cars at any given moment on that site, which leaves the rest of that 20 or so car parking area open to the public and that delivery system you were talking about.”

Other attendees raised concerns about traffic congestion and parking that will be available at the location. Mr Tsavoussis argued that the fast food restaurant franchise has successfully transported employees to the airport over the past ten years and that traffic is “subjective”.

He added: “We’ve been doing it for ten years at the airport. It does work. We don’t take up any spaces. We drop our employees off, we return to pick them up, we have two or three different bus schedules. So that does work.

“And this thing about traffic..it is something that is so subjective that any individual who wants to can put a spin on it any they want. We live in reality. We do this every day. We see customers every day. And we manage this every day. It’s what we do for a living. And we know, and we have a very good sense, of how it all works. And that is the difference between somebody who thinks they may know…but has absolutely no clue on the reality of what goes on.”

Fears were also raised that the restaurants would attract rodents to the area. Mr Tsavoussis said Aetos Holdings does a “tremendous amount of mitigation of rodents” as it operates international brands that would be “dead in the water” if vectors were discovered.

He said: “In reference to rodents we operate a brand, Wendy’s and Marcos Pizza. The way those businesses run, they are international brands. If you have a rodent in your restaurant, you are dead in the water, you’re out of business. You close your shop. There’s no room for any error there so we do a tremendous amount on mitigation of rodents”

The project could generate between 70 to 100 construction and full-time jobs, and one of the attendees in favour of the project said the development will “open doors for many”. She added: “I don’t know anybody here, but I think this company will open doors for many. Jobs will be available.”