HARLINGEN — Taco Palenque executives are dissatisfied with the Payless ShoeSource site at 1102 S. Expressway 83 and now say they are preparing to raze the building and start anew.
In January, a Taco Palenque spokesman had revealed the popular fast-casual chain would open its first Harlingen restaurant and use the Payless building, which it had purchased.
“That building turned out to be a little too small and the drive-through didn’t turn out the way we originally wanted, so we decided to start from scratch and use one of our prototypes,” Patrick Woodin, operations managing director, said yesterday.
The initial renovation of the Payless building was to be a $450,000 project, according to documents filed with the state. It isn’t known what the demolition of the current building and a new building will cost.
Taco Palenque has eight locations in the Valley, including Brownsville, McAllen (3), Weslaco, Mission, Edinburg and Palmhurst.
The new Harlingen restaurant is expected to employ 35 to 45 people.
Woodin said Taco Palenque is nearing the finish of a new set of plans which the company will submit to the city.
“We decided to start from scratch and demo that whole unit and do a whole new site plan,” he said. “We should have those final plans ready for the city by the 20th, or next weekend.
“Hopefully, we can get started in the next six to eight weeks,” he added.
