VACANT IHOP IN VANDALIA FOR SALE
Asking price for the restaurant and the lot it sits on is $3 million.
An IHOP restaurant VANDALIA — that was built a year ago but — never opened on Benchwood — Road around the corner from the Miller Lane restaurant row is now for sale or lease, suggesting that the future of the site may not be as an IHOP, despite all of the signs and branding to the contrary.
The online property listing by Colliers International and brokerage vice president Pete Nichols for the empty-but-brand-new IHOP in the 3300 block of Benchwood Road in Vandalia says it is “For sale or lease, newly-built restaurant. Fully furnished and equipped, ready for operation.”
The asking price for the 5,000-square-foot restaurant and 43,560-square-foot lot is $3 million.
Michael Dixson, CEO of Las Cruces, New Mexico-based PDG/ Prestige Development Group, the company that acted as area developer and oversaw construction of the other three relatively new Dayton-Springfield IHOPs, said that he had no comment on the potential sale.
A spokeswoman for IHOP’s corporate parent noted in an email that all IHOP restaurants are franchisee-operated. She declined to comment on the potential sale, but added, “We greatly appreciate the interest expressed by the community in opening an IHOP.”
Teo Regalado — the franchisee for the three other relatively new Dayton-area IHOP restaurants when they opened in Huber Heights, Beavercreek and Springfield — said in an email earlier this year that he was not the franchise owner-operator for the Benchwood/Vandalia location.
City of Vandalia spokesman Rich Hopkins said that city officials “really haven’t been involved in the property since issuing the certificate of occupancy back in February. We certainly would like to see the property utilized, but at this point we are, like many others, stuck playing the role of interested bystander.”
The brand-new-but-still-lifeless restaurant has puzzled Vandalia city officials and local business leaders and frustrated potential diners.
“We do receive inquiries about it every week,” said Will Roberts, president and CEO of the Vandalia-Butler Chamber of Commerce. “The community wants an opportunity to dine there. People are anxious. They’d like to see it open.”