By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1
In a little less than a year’s time the city of Glasgow will be the location of a new Starbucks coffeehouse — currently the world’s largest coffee chain.
The opening was officially announced on June 27 with an estimated grand opening on June 1, 2025. The new coffee shop location is planned to be in the Barren River Plaza shopping center off N.L. Rogers Wells Boulevard. Originally no specific information was readily available, but Glasgow News 1 recently conducted an interview with co-owner Larry Glass.
According to Glass, and tentative concept drawings, the Starbucks will be located in front of current shopping center tenant Ruler Foods in a seldom used area of the parking lot. The leased lot will be roughly an acre — which has increased since the original concept drawings in March — with the self-standing building being roughly 2,447 square feet.
According to Glass, discussions of this new installation really began around the first of the year when Sheila Bunch gave Glass’s contact information to a representative of the coffee chain who was looking to locate in the area. He said that due to the proximity of both the T.J. Health Pavilion and the department store Marshalls — which, in his words, is the “big dog in the room” — the deal with Starbucks was “one of the easiest” he made.
“When I say this has been one of the easiest deals that I’ve ever done I’m not exaggerating,” Glass said. “Typically when you’re dealing with a national tenant it’s 18 months to two years to get everything worked out…[but] it was really a deal I couldn’t get done quick enough for them.”
Glass said due to the coffee shop’s location off the main road it is technically a second-tier Starbucks but, due to the traffic of that “busy little shopping center” that roughly 1.8 million people visited last year, is being treated as a tier one location, which is not the normal, Glass said.
With all current tenants, and the Pavilion, approving its location, Glass said they had signed the letter of intent on Friday, July 5, which, to use Glass’s words, “basically makes it a done deal.” He has hired a contractor, an engineering firm and a architect and he is planning for construction to begin soon.
“If everything goes accordingly I hope to start construction by October at the latest,” Glass said. “It’ll take about eight to nine months to build…so I hope to have it basically finished in early May so [Starbucks] can start doing training.”
Glass is optimistic about the new Starbucks saying it will bring people from nearby counties who may have otherwise traveled to Bowling Green.
“This is going to bring so many people to Glasgow,” Glass said. “The fact that we’re getting a Starbucks and have a Marshalls in the same place [means] there will be other entities that locate here in the next 12 months. I have no doubt about that.”
“I want to see Glasgow grow; I don’t want to hurt anyone. Starbucks was coming whether I made the deal or not because they did their homework on Glasgow,” he added.
Another tentative drawing of the new Starbucks. This one is different from the Concept Site Drawing 1 as it has only one drive thru lane and not a zipper lane. Despite the two drawing differences, Glass said the location is pretty set.
