Dec. 27—Chick-fil-A in Berks County is wrapping up the year with a whirlwind of change.

The fast-food franchise's location in Broadcasting Square reopened its doors Dec. 8 for the first time since the old store was demolished and rebuilt earlier this year.

And on Dec. 12, Chick-fil-A announced another transition: Its longstanding location at the Berkshire Mall in Wyomissing will permanently close Dec. 31.

The Berkshire Mall store made the announcement on Instagram, thanking customers for 32 years of memories.

Scott Pendell, Berkshire Mall Chick-Fil-A manager, said his site is closing because the company plans to redirect resources to nearby locations.

Pendell and Chick-fil-A declined to comment on whether plans are in the works to open another store in Berks.

As for the Broadcasting Square location, owner and operator Scott Keiser said the old 3,600-square-foot store was demolished in late June and replaced with an entirely new, 5,000-square-foot prefabricated structure.

Keiser said the biggest change is the addition of a canopied, double-lane drive-thru.

He said the drive-thru area was redesigned for faster customer movement, and now includes a "cockpit" with a dedicated ice machine, soda foundation and two cash registers, as well as a door so workers can bring out orders to the far lane.

"We're operating a single lane for now, since it's brand new," Keiser said, "But the goal is to double the capacity of the drive-thru."

Chick-fil-A's kitchen has also been streamlined for speed, and now features a "center line" with additional fryers and equipment that can provide more cooking capacity during peak times.

"At times we have almost twice as many people working in the kitchen as we did prior," Keiser said.

The location's worker count has more than doubled as well.

"We brought back the vast majority of employees that were with us after six months of being closed," Keiser noted, "and based on our capacity, we thought we'd need to hire about 70 more."

The store now employs about 125, according to Keiser.

Keiser said the new design is aimed at enhancing the guest experience via customer-friendly practices like delivering food directly to tables and displaying a queue for mobile orders.

Another change involved swapping the playland for an employee "flex" room, which serves as a break room and meeting space, Keiser said.

"We just wanted to honor our employees and give them a good place to have a break," Keiser said, "It also came about after years of COVID, where people are more sensitive about putting their children in a playland with all the germs."

Guests have said they're happy with the changes, according to Keiser.

"Everyone says the store is beautiful. It's a totally different updated design," Keiser said.

Chick-fil-A has operated at Broadcasting Square for more than 20 years.

In addition to the Broadcasting Square and Berkshire Mall locations, Chick-fil-A has three other stores in Berks, at Fifth Street Highway in Temple, Perkiomen Avenue in Exeter Township, and Kutztown University's Forum Food Court.

The franchise operates more than 2,600 restaurants across 47 states, Washington, D.C., Canada and Puerto Rico.