Checkers on Kirkwood Highway to reopen under new ownership

Checkers on Kirkwood Highway in Milltown is reopening under new ownership next month.

The fast-food burger restaurant closed in January 2020 after just over a year in business. It will reopen the second week of July, said Jimy Patel, the new franchise owner.

"We saw potential in it," Patel said. "It kind of went downhill. We came in; we revamped the location."

Patel operates a number of Checkers, Subway, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut locations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He said the restaurant will benefit from his experience and a renovated interior.

Patel was encouraged by the amount of traffic the restaurant generated when it first opened before he said it went "downhill."

After driving through southern New Jersey to scout locations to build a new Checkers on an early February day, Patel crossed the Delaware Memorial Bridge for a personal visit to Delaware. He drove past the vacant Checkers and immediately called a contact with the company.

The Kirkwood Highway location provided what he was looking for in his next restaurant: openness, visibility and traffic.

It will be the fourth Checkers in Delaware, joining locations near New Castle on Route 13 and in Wilmington on West Fourth Street and North Market Street.

Since the start of the pandemic, Patel's restaurants have generated their majority of their revenue through drive-thru and delivery. At Checkers, the drive-thru line and dining room will be open from day one and delivery will start about two weeks later, Patel said.

"We kept changing. We had to hang in there and do whatever it takes to make sure the business survived," Patel said. "Now, it seems like whatever we did was the right thing to keep our business afloat."

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Contact Brandon Holveck at bholveck@delawareonline.com. Follow him on Twitter @holveck_brandon.