Taco Time to be demolished, rebuilt

Renovation is still in planning stages

Looks like Taco Time is getting a face lift.

"They're going to demolish it and then put in a drive-through fast food [restaurant], and then also have three suites for different businesses," said Gary Harer, municipal services director for the city of Moses Lake.

The Moses Lake city council recently gave architects approval for a variance from the city's cement concrete driveway standard to allow for a drive-through window in the new building, Harer said.

"The reason for the variance is because they are going to tear that building down and start from scratch," he said. "Along Broadway, the edge of the property line has to be 30 feet from the nearest edge of the driveway. The existing driveway doesn't have any setback, so they had to go before city council to obtain a variance to retain that driveway."

Harer said the council approved the variance based on the fact that there haven't been any problems with the existing driveway at Taco Time, and because the police didn't have any concerns with the driveway location.

"It's still Taco Time; it's not going away," said Gilbert Alvarado, Moses Lake community development director. "We'll see it on the planning commission agenda in a few weeks. It's not quite moving forward just yet."

Matt Tonkin, president of the Taco Time core territory in Washington state, said that the planning stages haven't yet gotten to the point where it's known what businesses will go in the other suites, but he's sure Taco Time will remain a large component of the approximately 5,500 square-foot strip building.

"We really haven't gotten beyond the site planning at this point," Tonkin said. "Once we get a handle on what the final building configuration is going to be, then we'll look at what the other businesses are going to be."

Tonkin said the exact timetable isn't set yet for the building demolition and construction.

"We just passed one hurdle through city council, so it just takes time," he said.