Kissimmee could be facing a slider showdown with a new brand eyeing the W192 corridor for its first Central Florida franchise.
Representatives for Smalls Sliders held a pre-application meeting on Tuesday with Osceola County’s Development Review Committee to discuss plans to open a slider location at Lake Wilson Village. The new Smalls Sliders would be just down the street from Kissimmee’s first White Castle restaurant, scheduled to open early next year at Old Town.
Smalls Sliders is one of the fastest-growing brands in the restaurant industry, specializing exclusively in fresh, cooked-to-order cheeseburger sliders, waffle fries and milkshakes. Equipped with a streamlined drive-thru, walk-up window and unique modular buildout, the Atlanta-based brand is headed towards nationwide growth with locations opening across the Southeast, Southwest, Midwest, and West Coast.
Smalls offers a limited menu of cheeseburger sliders, with or without bacon, waffle fries, and milkshakes. (Photo by Tiffani Sherman)
Smalls Sliders is the brainchild of restaurateur Brandon Landry, is led by industry veteran Maria Rivera, and is backed by 10 Point Capital and former NFL star Drew Brees as investors. In Florida, the company has opened franchise stores in Ocala, Pensacola and Clearwater. The Kissimmee location would be the company’s first in Central Florida.
Jill Minton from CPH Engineers represented the company during Tuesday’s meeting, which focused on site plan requirements under Osceola’s W192 design guidelines.
Lake Wilson Preserve is located at the intersection of Old Lake Wilson and Funie Steed roads, just south of U.S. 192 in Kissimmee. Other future tenants in the center include Dutch Bros, Big Dan’s Car Wash, and AutoZone. Chick-fil-A was slated to take one of the corner lots but appears to have dropped out of the project, likely due to Osceola County’s enormous increase in mobility fees for fast-food restaurants.
A 124-room ECHO Suites, an extended-stay brand from Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, was also approved for the anchor spot in the center and has an approved building permit, but it also appears to have backed out. That lot is now listed as available in leasing materials from LQ Commercial Real Estate Services
The county hiked the fee for restaurants with drive-thru windows last year by over 1,000%, and developers were told they must have approved building permits by May to be grandfathered in under the old rates. The proposed 5,000-square-foot Chick-fil-A was facing an increase from $74,010 to $832,240, so the Atlanta company applied for its building permit last November but didn’t receive the approval in time. The ECHO Suites builder permit was approved in May, so it was grandfathered in under the previous rate.
The Smalls Sliders prototype is a drive-thru concept with walk-up service. Each “can” is built from shipping containers. (Courtesy of Smalls Sliders)
Even with the new rates, the impact fee could be more manageable for concepts like Dutch Bros and Smalls Sliders. A 800-square-foot Smalls Sliders with no indoor seating would be charged a $133,158 mobility fee.
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