Wendy’s opened its new-and-improved location on Western Boulevard earlier this month in an attempt to relaunch its image.

Tony Cathcart, director of Raleigh Area Operations, said it took 17 weeks to construct the new Wendy’s building from demolition to completion.

While the construction only took a few months, the company went through a tremendous amount of research for the project. According to Cathcart, the research aspect of remodeling the building took nearly three years.

As a result, the new Wendy’s has a completely renovated design that is part of a campaign to reimage the company, Cathcart said.

“This was a project driven from our corporate office called image activation,” Cathcart said. “It’s a whole project that we’ve gone through and our goal was to reimage the restaurant all the way from the directional signs to the faucets on the hand sinks.” 

According to Cathcart, the image activation isn’t static and will continue to gradually change.

“We’ve had these buildings now for about a year,” Cathcart said. “We’re still testing it and evolving it as we go. We want to provide an environment where people feel welcome and can take their time and we strive to be a cut above.”

While the 17-week timeline might seem short for such a large project, the remodeling team experienced some unavoidable delays.

“We had a lot of rain after we first tore down the old building,” Cathcart said. “It was a tremendous amount of rain which pushed back our timeline.”

Cathcart also said there were problems with the site’s foundation that need to be fixed.

“We ran into soil issues that we had to fix. When they tore the old parking lot up they realized the ground underneath was just a mess,” Cathcart said. “We had to basically lay two parking lots down. We had to treat the soil with a type of concrete-like mixture so they could put the new parking lot on top [which] cost us about ten days.”

Despite all the delays, Cathcart said the process could have been done quicker. Typically, a project of this size takes thirteen weeks to complete, but in ideal conditions it can be done in twelve.

Cathcart said Wendy’s used the construction company Qualified Builders to tear down the old building and construct the new one.

“We only utilize approved builders that have been approved through Wendy’s through the corporate engineering department,” Cathcart said. “They go through rigorous testing.”

To open a brand new Wendy’s, Cathcart said it costs about $1.2 million. But again the unforeseen circumstances were a burden. 

“This Wendy’s cost about 1.7 million because of the demolition of the old building and the soil issues,” Cathcart said.

According to Cathcart, Wendy’s is recycling “We don’t cut corners,” Dave Thomas’ slogan that is both a statement on the restaurant’s business values and a reference to its distinctly square burgers.

“Through the years [the meaning of the old slogan] got lost a lot and that’s why we’re coming up with this new image activation,” Cathcart said.

The new building was designed to reflect this slogan.

“Quality is our recipe, and we wanted a building that would sort of recognize that slogan,” Cathcart said. “That’s why we want a building where people will realize when they come in that this is not an ordinary quick-serve restaurant.” 

While on the outside, the new Wendy’s looks like a two story restaurant, it is actually a single level. According to Cathcart, there are a variety of liabilities that go along with having a second story and since they had the room to expand outward there was no need to expand upward.

Cathcart said he expects the building to house Wendy’s for the next two decades.

Wendy’s buildings typically stand about twenty years and the franchise agreements are good for twenty years as well.

Cathcart also described how Wendy’s hopes to provide an option for students who want to grab a bite to eat and study. 

 “We are so glad to be close to N.C. State,” Cathcart said. “Their students are a big part of our business model so we’ll do anything to take care of them.”