New Popeyes Restaurant Planned for Busy Route 9 Shopping Plaza

If approved by the planning board, a new Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen will be breaking ground soon on Route 9.

Known for their comfort food and now-famous chicken sandwiches, Popeyes is the second-largest quick-service chicken restaurant in the country. Currently, the restaurant chain has over 3,000 locations worldwide. Here in the Hudson Valley, there are four Popeyes in Kingston, Poughkeepsie, Newburgh and Middletown.

But now, it looks like another Popeyes location may soon be breaking ground.

On December 7 the Town of Wappingers planning board will be presented with a proposal to build a new Popeyes restaurant at 1490 Route 9, which is the address of the former Romanelli's Restaurant and Pizzeria in the Hannaford Shopping Plaza.

The plan, which is available on the Town of Wappingers website, shows renderings for the new restaurant that would be built around the footprint of the former Romanelli's Pizzeria. The plan also calls for a drive-thru window that will reconfigure the surrounding parking lot and spaces.

The extensive plan contains many details about the proposed project from the type of floodlights that will be used in the parking lot down to the specific plants that would be part of the landscaping around the new restaurant.

It's unclear how quickly the project could be approved after the official presentation on December 7, but many residents will certainly be happy to hear that an existing, closed business is being considered for new life instead of being left vacant. Several failed chain restaurants are located near the proposed Popeyes including a Sonic that sits empty in the adjacent lot.