ALBEMARLE — On Friday, March 18, the City of Albemarle announced via its social media pages that Starbucks could be coming to the area soon. The post was shared almost 450 times just on Facebook, showing a lot of interest in the possibility of a new location for the coffee giant in Stanly County’s biggest city.
“A new Starbucks location could be coming soon to Albemarle!” the city’s announcement said.
According to the statement, they are still reviewing the proposed plans, but the enthusiastic announcement suggests they are likely to approve the plans if there are no major issues. The proposal for the Seattle, Washington-based coffee chain’s shop would include a “2,505 square foot stand-alone building.”
As far as the location, the city said it will be located next to Biscuitville on N.C. Highway 24. There are already a lot of national chains along the strip, including Zaxby’s, Applebee’s, Hardee’s, Pizza Hut, Papa John’s, Dunkin, Bojangle’s, Arby’s and KFC.
In fact, among the more-than-400 comments on the post were many concerns about there being too much traffic already along that stretch of highway southeast of town. Others suggested there was not enough activity in other areas, especially along Highway 52 just west of town and that more needed to be built there.
The city also made clear in the announcement that “Commercial retail development is just one part of the City’s economic development strategy,” adding that their development strategy also includes “Encouraging entrepreneurial opportunities in the downtown (small businesses)” and “Recruiting commercial industrial development (Albemarle Business Center).”
Just over a year ago, in January 2021, there was similar buzz about a Starbucks coming to Locust, which would have been the county’s first location for the coffee chain. Assuming both locations get completed, the county could soon have two Starbucks for residents to enjoy.