The Dunkin’ Donuts store on the corner of Route 88 and Arnold Avenue near the Point Pleasant Canal bridge. (Credit: Google Earth)
A Dunkin’ Donuts store that has graced visitors trekking over the Point Pleasant Canal for decades would receive a major upgrade should it gain approval from the Point Pleasant Borough planning board.
Despite a prominent location at the foot of the Route 88 bridge over the canal, at the intersection of Route 88 and Arnold Avenue, the Dunkin’ Donuts store is particularly small and has a small parking lot to go with it. Under the proposal by “Pt. Pleasant Properties, LLC,” its owner, the building would be completely demolished in favor of a replacement store with modern features and engineering.
Plans call for the company to construct a new Dunkin’ Donuts with a drive-thru lane and parking, fresh landscaping, lighting, curbing, sidewalks, a new trash enclosure and a stormwater management conveyance system.
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The case has already had a hearing which was not completed, and had been scheduled to be heard again last week. The case was adjourned, however, and testimony will pick up again at the borough’s February planning board meeting, the Building Department confirmed.
While the new location will be designed from the ground up for its location, parking will still be limited – which is the subject of one of the primary variances that the property owner will need to obtain before demolishing the current building. For a 1,614 square foot fast food establishment (as Dunkin’ Donuts is classified by ordinance), 22 parking spaces are required, whereas only nine are proposed due to the size of the property. Still, in past hearings on quick serve as fast food restaurants, many representatives have expressed the fact that in 2024, in upwards of 80 percent of sales are conducted at the drive-through window rather than inside the store itself.
The replacement Dunkin’ Donuts would also require variances for landscape buffers of 7.5-feet rather than 10 feet, the location of parking spaces in what is considered a “front yard” due to the shape of the lot, and relief from having to provide a larger physical buffer around adjacent residential properties.
