Buffalo Wings & Rings gained approval from Danville-Boyle County Planning and Zoning this week to move ahead with plans for a restaurant in Danville.

The P&Z Commission voted unanimously to approve the restaurant’s site plan for an approximately-1.2-acre piece of land at 101 Commerce St., off the south end of the Danville U.S. 150 Bypass — next to the recently opened Cattleman’s Roadhouse.

Tom Davis, director of construction for Buffalo Wings & Rings, told commissioners the restaurant is being opened by a franchisee who also owns locations in Bardstown and Elizabethtown.

“We strive to be the number-one family sports restaurant in the nation — that’s what we’re striving for,” Davis said. “We love coming into small communities like this and being a part of it. We love families coming in and groups — ball teams, football teams, everything. That’s what we’re about.”

Davis said initially, the restaurant is expected to create about 100 jobs. After a startup period, that will even out at around 70.

P&Z Director Steve Hunter said the planned 5,950-square-foot building must have at least 24 parking spaces by law, but the site plan shows 88 spaces, including four handicapped ones. A few of the spaces on the original site plan seemed like they would be “tricky to maneuver,” but Buffalo Wings & Rings agreed to modify the plan and addressed the issue on the approved plan, Hunter said.

Signage for the restaurant will have to be approved separately, he said.

Buffalo Wings & Rings would become the third major business to open on the south end of Danville’s bypass since last December. Holiday Inn Express opened in late 2016; Cattleman’s opened this fall.

“We are now achieving a critical mass at the Centre Estates development with aggressive property owners, reasonably-priced sites, good visibility, high traffic count, and strong anchors in two hotels and now Cattleman’s Roadhouse,” said Jody Lassiter, president of the Danville-Boyle County Economic Development Partnership. “We have up to four other commercial prospects with interest in or considering the Centre Estates development. Our strategy is that this momentum will positively affect prospect interest in the three vacant properties on Southtown Drive. The recently-cleared site of the former Sutton’s restaurant presents an immediate opportunity if the property owner is willing.”

Discussions of a Buffalo Wings and Rings in Danville stretch back more than six years. The franchisee, Shaun Hill, expressed interest in the Danville area to Lassiter and Boyle County Judge-Executive Harold McKinney in April 2011, according to previous comments made by Lassiter.

“He invited Judge McKinney and me to visit what then was the new Bardstown store,” Lassiter said in February of this year, when Buffalo Wings and Rings announced it was looking for a franchisee to open a Danville location. “We soon took the opportunity to go there for one of our monthly lunch meetings. I followed up with Mr. Hill in an email … and he advised that it would take some time before he was ready to launch his next location since the Bardstown store had just opened.”

Lassiter said Thursday he’s glad to see the project finally becoming a reality.

“It’s very satisfying to see a prospect take the final step toward construction, particularly when we’ve had a long-standing recruitment relationship.”