‘Columbus is absolutely booming,’ local business owner looking to develop multimillion dollar food complex

COLUMBUS, Ga. (WRBL)— North Columbus has been full of orange cones and construction signs lately, as developments continue to migrate to the area.

One local businesswoman is looking to expand her business, and resume from restaurant owner to developer. She hopes to develop more than 13 acres of land just one road over from Veterans Parkway. All she must do now is get approval to rezone the property.

“My late stepfather had always said that this would be the growth area of Columbus, and I believe he was right,” owner of Minnie’s Uptown Restaurant and The Chicken Lady’s Coop Melinda Newton told WRBL standing in the 8100 block of Fortson Road. “Behind me is 13.6 acres that we would like to create a multi-cultural food complex. We want a variety of everything going in here, from German restaurants to Southern cuisine, barbecue, ramen, Italian.”

Currently the 13.6 acres of undeveloped land is zoned for residential use in north Columbus.

Newton went before the Planning Advisory Committee June 21 requesting the rezoning from residential to general commercial, which was approved unanimously. Her vision, to bring in seven restaurants, six food truck commissaries to rent, and nearly 300 parking spots.

“Right now, all of my negotiations are with local only,” Newton said. “I don’t want to bring in more franchises, I want something different for Columbus. I want the culture.”

All she needs now is approval from Columbus City Council.

“This is what I think Columbus wants. And so, I’m going to try my best to give it to them,” Newton said.

Her vision for this complex started with a goal to relocate and expand The Chicken Lady’s Coop. She says she has outgrown her storefront on Whittlesey Boulevard but didn’t want to move the coop all by itself.

“It’s just doing too much business; it’s bursting at the seams. So, I knew that I needed to move it and looking at acres on Veterans Parkway, it’s just very expensive,” Newton shared. “I didn’t necessarily want to move the coop over here all by itself, and then talking with fellow restauranteurs that also wanted to move their restaurants, we kind of came up with the idea of a restaurant complex that’s going to house all of it.”

Also, a part of the vision; rotating food trucks.

“One of the features that’s going in this complex is housing food trucks. I’m going to house commissary. So, if you have a food truck or food trailer or if you have the idea that you want one. Well, in Harris County and Columbus, you must have a commissary, a home base. So that’s what I’m going to build,” Newton said.

Now she has more than 30 business owners reaching out to her to be a part of the development.

The restaurants and food truck spots will only take up five to six of the 13.6 acres, Newton says she will have two acres to offer as prime real estate.

Newton is the granddaughter of Columbus namesake of popular downtown restaurant Minnie Hanneman. Hanneman opened her restaurant Minnie’s Uptown Restaurant in 1986, now Newton is continuing the entrepreneurial tradition.

“My grandmother Minnie, that recently passed, when she put Minnie’s where Minnie’s is, no one believed that it would prosper in that area,” Newton said. “I know it’s kind of unbelievable. Had you asked me a year ago if I would be developing a multimillion-dollar complex, I would have laughed. But you really now don’t know what the plans are for you. And when everything starts falling into place, you just you take that spirit, and you just go for it.”

Newton isn’t the only person developing properties in north Columbus. One block away Old Town is opening their Old Town Marketplace featuring a Publix, less than a mile away a 40-bed inpatient rehabilitation hospital is set to open this fall after ground broke more than a year ago. Plus, five miles up J.R. Allen Parkway lies Midland Commons where a Publix opened this month, new loft apartments are now being leased over eateries set to open soon.

“Columbus is absolutely booming and a lot of the country is not building right now in this economy, but sometimes it just happens where you can still continue to build… and that’s what we’re doing,” Newton said. “Minnie’s in Uptown Columbus is thriving just as much as north Columbus, you can tell just by the amount of construction that’s going on in this city. It’s fantastic.”

Newton says Minnie’s Uptown Restaurant will remain in Uptown, and The Chicken Lady’s Coop will move to the Fortson Road location. She says her space will more than double, and she will have a drive-thru which she does not have at her current location.

She plans to go before council in July.