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New Checkers drive-in opens at bustling corner

By JON WILSON
Published March 2, 2005

ST. PETERSBURG - A long-anticipated Checkers drive-in restaurant is expected to open today at 62nd Avenue N and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street, replacing a neighborhood eyesore and adding another element to a busy commercial corner.

The nation's ninth-largest burger chain will open its signature, 1950s-motif double drive-through "barring disaster," said Bruce Ogle, Checkers director of operations.

A formal grand opening is March 19, Ogle said. The drive-in will feature its traditional menu, including burgers, fish sandwiches and spicy chicken sandwiches.

The restaurant replaces a closed service station, which had become a magnet for street drifters and people leaving their vehicles and boats with "for sale" signs attached.

"It was an ugly piece of property," said Dolores Singleton, a board member of the neighboring Meadowlawn Neighborhood Association.

Among other businesses operating at the intersection or nearby are McDonald's, KFC, Dunkin' Donuts, Payless Shoe Source and several others in Rutland Plaza.

The most recent traffic count near the intersection is 24,375 vehicles daily, according to the Metropolitan Planning Organization.

Checkers typically situates its restaurants amid busy strips. The drive-in on Fourth Street N, for example, competes head-on with nearby McDonald's, Burger King and Arby's, in addition to restaurants in the Northeast Shopping Center.

Checkers was founded in 1985 in Mobile, Ala., later moving its headquarters to Clearwater and finally to Tampa.

There are more than 400 company-owned and franchised Checkers drive-ins nationwide, including about a dozen south of Ulmerton Road in Pinellas.

[Last modified March 2, 2005, 00:47:18]