Two restaurants on Bloomington's east side to be razed for new business? What we know.

Boris Ladwig, The Herald-Times
·2 min read
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A man on the phone walks past the Taco Bell on Third Street on Friday, Aug. 18, 2023. The Taco Bell and KFC may soon be replaced with a Crew Carwash.
A man on the phone walks past the Taco Bell on Third Street on Friday, Aug. 18, 2023. The Taco Bell and KFC may soon be replaced with a Crew Carwash.

The owners of two eastside Bloomington restaurants have filed plans to raze the structures to make room for a car wash.

Documents filed with the city show the owners of the KFC and Taco Bell at Third Street and Pete Ellis Drive plan to tear down the restaurants to erect a Crew Carwash.

The company could not be immediately reached to talk about construction costs or a timeline. A planner with the city of Bloomington said he had not been informed of an estimated completion date but said it was his impression the owners hope to launch the project soon.

Gabriel Holbrow, zoning planner with the city’s planning and transportation department, emphasized, though, that whether the project moves forward is still uncertain.

A Crew Carwash drawing that was filed with the city's planning department.
A Crew Carwash drawing that was filed with the city's planning department.

Plans filed with the city show a roughly 8,000-square-foot building, the front of which would face Third Street. Holbrow said the site plan indicates cars “would enter and exit from the property to the north, which means they would ultimately be coming off/coming back on Pete Ellis.”

According to the local GIS system, the KFC property is owned by DAHM No. 64 LLC. According to the Indiana Secretary of State’s website, that business is based in Fishers, at the same address of the Crew Carwash Support Center. DAHM acquired the property in 2022. It last changed hands before that in 2003.

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Crew has 41 car washes in Indiana, according to its website, including 29 in the Indianapolis area and one in Bloomington, at 3430 W. Third St. It also has three in Minnesota. Four more car washes are “coming soon,” according to the site.

The Taco Bell restaurant on Third Street opened in 1995, according to HT archives. The chain has four other restaurants in Bloomington. The KFC joint also has existed since at least the mid-1990s, according to the archives. KFC has one other restaurant in Bloomington, at 3700 W. Third St. KFC’s history in Bloomington goes back to 1963, when the late Henry F. Boxman opened the city's first Colonel Sanders Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant.

Boris Ladwig can be reached at bladwig@heraldt.com.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Plans call for replacing eastside KFC, Taco Bell with Crew Carwash