Kent’s in the running for a new Dick’s Drive-In.
Voters on Dick’s online poll for a new location south or east of the company’s current sites picked the south over the east with about 60 percent of the more than 170,000 votes.
Company President Jim Spady announced the poll results on Monday through Facebook at Dick’s Wallingford location in Seattle. A specific site will be picked later and is expected to open in 2018. People could not vote for a specific city but only east or south.
The potential south locations include Kent, West Seattle, South Seattle, Renton, Burien, SeaTac, Tukwila, Auburn, Normandy Park, Des Moines and Federal Way. The east locations were Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, Bothell, Mercer Island, Issaquah, Sammamish and Woodinville.
Spady asked city officials in the south to contact him about potential sites. Ben Wolters, city of Kent economic and community development director, said his staff will work with Dick’s about possible sites in the city.
The expansion is the first new restaurant for the company since the Edmonds Dick’s Drive-In opened in October 2011. The first Dick’s Drive-In opened on Northeast 45th Street in Wallingford in 1954. Burgers were 19 cents, fries 11 cents and shakes 21 cents.