The front entrance of a new Starbucks on Worthsville Road as seen from the north. Starbucks is planning on building an 2,166-square foot store near Worthsville Road and U.S. 31.
Provided by the city of Greenwood
A popular national coffeehouse chain will soon add another location in Greenwood.
Seattle-based Starbucks is planning to build a 2,166-square foot store at 189 E. Worthsville Road, behind the GetGo gas station near U.S. 31. Once constructed, it would be Starbucks’ 10th location within the greater Greenwood area.
The building would have entrances on both Worthsville Road and Independence Drive, city documents show.
The coffeehouse chain came before the city’s Board of Zoning Appeals last week to request commercial building design standards variances for transparency and masonry. The board voted unanimously to approve both variances.
The requests are due to the lot’s layout, which has road frontages on both sides, that cause difficulty in meeting city requirements, city documents say.
For transparency, Starbucks would’ve been required to have screening on both Worthsville Road and Independence Drive, but this is difficult because of where the kitchen is located. Transparency is the portion of a building elevation that one can see through, such as a window or other glazing, according to city documents.
The masonry variance was needed because if the contractor followed the city’s requirements for the primary entrance on Worthsville Road, they wouldn’t be able to meet Starbucks’ standards, said Marc Tworek, a contractor with Versatile Construction Group, LLC.
The developer was requesting the amount of masonry be lowered slightly because the “unique size and shape” of the land prevents the construction of a large enough building to provide the amount of brick along the front of the building the city wanted, Tworek said.
City planning staff issued a positive recommendation for both variances, documents show.
