ALBEMARLE — For Stanly County residents looking to add to their breakfast menu, a new dining option is set to arrive in Albemarle.
Biscuitville Fresh Southern, a privately held regional fast-food restaurant chain, has officially gained approval by the city and county to build a new location at the former Sagebrush Steakhouse site at 623 NC Highway 24-27.
The estimated opening date for Biscuitville’s Albemarle location has not been made public; a marketing consultant for the company told SCJ that a press release could be weeks or months away.
Originally founded in 1966 by Maurice Jennings as a pizza restaurant, the Burlington-based company specializes in Southern cuisine and breakfast foods, with 62 locations throughout North Carolina and Virginia.
“We’re excited anytime a well-established brand makes a location decision to be in Stanly County,” Candice Boyd Lowder, director of the Stanly County Economic Development Commission, told SCJ on Monday. “We feel like we can definitely support an additional restaurant in Albemarle and we’re thankful for the city’s partnership with our office and Retail Strategies to continue retail improvement.”
Ever since signing a contract with the city in 2014, Retail Strategies, LLC — a national retail firm based out of Birmingham, Alabama — has assisted in helping to boost Albemarle’s business market.
On Dec. 7, Albemarle Economic Development director Keith Tunnell presented the city council with a report documenting that 11 retailers, 200 new jobs and over $26 million in total investments have arrived since the city’s partnership with Retail Strategies began.
Amidst the news of a business coming to the spot of the old Sagebrush, a contractor on site has been in charge of the crews tasked with demolishing the building. According to a report by the Albemarle Police Department, a crewmember discovered human remains on the premises during a routine demolition procedure this past Thursday afternoon.
“While the demolition crew was taking the building down, they discovered the remains of a male subject inside the business, and it looks like he has been there for quite some time,” Albemarle Police Chief David Dulin told SCJ. “The body is very decomposed, and right now it’s being taken to the medical examiner’s office for an autopsy to possibly get some identification on this subject. There was no wallet in the pocket to indicate who this was.”
Dulin said that the autopsy results could possibly generate a timeline as to how long the remains had been there.
“We don’t have any active missing person reports to compare that to, and we haven’t had anybody reach out to us yet. We’re looking through a few avenues of people that maybe we haven’t seen in a while,” Dulin continued. “We can at least get some dental records or see if there are some previously broken bones that we can put together with the history of someone we may know.”
Anyone with information about the identity of the subject call 704-984-9500 to reach the Albemarle Police Department or call 704-984-9511 to leave an anonymous tip.