New eateries planned at East Bend center

Texas Roadhouse and Panda Express set to open on the former Kmart site

Plans for two new restaurants have been submitted for the East Bend Shopping Center site, which formerly housed a Kmart on Hicks Drive.

Panda Express was first to submit plans for review and now Texas Roadhouse has also turned in their plans at the Rome Floyd Building Inspection Department.

If the timetable holds at the R.H. Ledbetter Properties site at Turner McCall Boulevard, we should see the new shopping center open by this time next year — just in time for the 2020 holiday shopping season.

The Texas Roadhouse is expected to open a 7,462-squarefoot restaurant with seating for 280 in the main dining room and another 48 in the large waiting room. There will be wait space for another 13 customers in the carry-out area.

The chain restaurant features a variety of hand-cut steaks and ribs as well as a wide range of chicken, pork, catfish, shrimp, salmon, burgers and salads.

Panda Express bills itself as a fast, casual American Chinese restaurant chain that got its start in California in 1983. The Rome shop will encompass 2,290 square feet and drawings indicate that it will have indoor seating for 68 patrons.

Entrees at Panda Express include a variety of chicken, beef and shrimp dishes with vegetable plates.

Both restaurants are among the businesses that Ledbetter Properties has attracted for the new retail center that are completely new to the Rome market.

In other plans submitted to the department, Two Old Tiger developers have submitted documents for review of plans for a 78-foot by 60-foot general mercantile building. If approved, the building will be located on the western side of the lot at Berry Crossing, at Martha Berry Boulevard and Redmond Road.

Building official James Martin said the plans appear to be for a speculative building on the site that is already anchored by CVS and a Wells Fargo bank branch.