The Battle Ground commercial scene is experiencing another surge after a brief hiatus, which felt like several years, surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.
In January 2024, The Reflector reported on the public notice for a dual-restaurant building slated to host IHOP (International House of Pancakes) and Super Chix in the Scotton Landing development near Walmart. After over a year of inaction at the site and no progress made in the permitting process, the permit was issued on May 27 this year, and construction of the two restaurants began shortly thereafter.
On Friday, July 11, the foundations for the combined building were poured. Still, work was not happening in contrast to the busy construction site of the upcoming Tractor Supply store slated to rival Wilco and Ace Hardware with its offerings.
The restaurant building permit sits at 15 percent completed after the foundation inspection passed with corrections on July 3. The proposed site plan includes 60 parking stalls, while the project is predicted to generate 832 daily trips, according to the original project narrative.
Super Chix has recently opened in East Vancouver, near Mill Plain Boulevard and 192nd Avenue, and has maintained a 4.5 Google rating after 207 reviews. The restaurant offers chicken tenders, chicken sandwiches, frozen custard and more.
The only IHOP in Clark County, located near the Vancouver Mall, has a Google rating of 3.8 after 2,905 reviews, while the one by the Portland International Airport has a rating of 3.6 stars with 2,024 reviews as of Friday, July 11. However, the newest one in the Portland Metro area, in Tigard, has a 4.5 Google rating based on 84 reviews.
A flurry of activity for the Tractor Supply project has been completed or partially completed in the workflow category, resulting in a 39 percent completion rate on the Battle Ground public information portal. The proposed site plan for the Tractor Supply site includes 84 parking spaces.
Across state Route 503 at the Scotton Way Crossing development, which includes 7/11, Burger King, and other businesses, construction continued on Friday, July 11, for the 10,000-square-foot Kindercare daycare and early learning center. The approved site plans include playgrounds for infants, toddlers and preschoolers.
Along with the Tractor Supply project, a farm store yet to be named, passed the pre-application review process in May of 2024, but has not progressed from there.
For background, after the Tractor Supply pre-application conference review was submitted in April 2024, having been approved in the same month, a project labeled BG Commercial West, located at the corner of State Route 503 and Southwest Rasmussen Boulevard, also submitted a pre-application conference submission.
The BG Commercial West project features two buildings, one resembling a farm store, as indicated by the site plan, which labels the site with bulk soil, bulk propane, a hay shed and 24,000 square feet of retail space, along with an additional 15,693 square feet of warehouse space.
The application remains without any retail business name, but the applicant, Jeff Piccolo, has been associated with Wilco Farm Stores in the past, both in documents with the city of McMinnville, Oregon, related to Wilco as well as during a grand opening for a Wilco Farm Store in Yakima on Sept. 27, 2021.
“I want to recognize our real estate manager who helped find this location for us. … Our real estate manager is Jeff Piccolo,” said Wilco CEO Sam Bugarksy at the Yakima ceremony livestreamed on Facebook on Sept. 27, 2021.
The BG Commercial West project proposes a separate 16,000-square-foot retail building with its own section of parking.
