By Neil Johnson - April 21 2023

 

JANESVILLE

The former Perkins restaurant in Janesville once had a large American flag that flapped high above traffic at the corner of Milton Avenue and Humes Road, the city’s busiest intersection.

An American flag is flying high at that same corner once again, but below it a restaurant chain known for Tex-Mex food, baby back ribs and chili pepper emojis — Chili’s — has replaced the former Perkins at 3315 Milton Ave.

A Chili’s employee who was in staff orientation and training at the restaurant deferred to corporate officials on any major details, but he said the brand-new Chili’s is slated to officially open around May 8.

The redevelopment is the first business to launch at the location since the Perkins was razed in 2021, about a year after the restaurant abruptly shuttered amid corporate downsizing in the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The property is the upswing now with the new Chili’s, opening after the last significant wave of COVID infections, is coming online as the American restaurant industry sees dine-in customers begin to return.

The intersection where Chili’s now stands continues to see about 55,000 to 60,000 vehicles a day, making it the city’s busiest retail stretch.

The I-90/39 expansion project that took more than a half-decade to complete — including a full rebuild of all lanes of Humes Road along a mile-long stretch east of the Milton Avenue intersection, ended late last year.

In recent months, developers have finished buildouts of a new Hy-Vee grocery on Humes Road, a hotel is being built just east of Hy-Vee, and retailers Target and Blain’s Farm & Fleet both unveiled store renovations. Those revamps and developments come as new traffic and retail patterns along the busy spur begin to fall into place.

Jeff Woodman owns the retail property where Perkins — and now Chili’s — stands.

Woodman said in previous interviews with The Gazette that he’d offered up the Perkins building to some local restaurants he thought could benefit from the intersection’s high traffic count and high saturation of both local traffic, commuters and travelers hopping off nearby Interstate 39-90.

A local, family-operated barbecue restaurant operator had considered launching a second location at the site, and Woodman said before he struck a development deal with Chili’s, some other suiters had included Chicagoland-based chain Portillo’s, and Chick-fil-A, a chain that eventually built a new restaurant about a quarter mile east along Humes Road.

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