Hoffmann Investors Corp. is asking the Village of Larchmont to approve its application to add a drive-thru Dunkin’ Donuts store to its office building at 1890 Palmer Ave. The entity Men At Work, LLC, which has a business address at 1311 Boston Post Road in Larchmont and operates a number of Dunkin’ Donuts stores in the greater New York Metro area, has signed a lease for approximately 1,425 square feet of space on the first floor of the building.
The four-story building was constructed in 1979. A typical floor size is 10,200 square feet. Included among the tenants are those in the fields of law, finance, and health care.
Attorney Albert J. Pirro Jr. of the White Plains-based law firm Abrams Fensterman LLP has been representing the applicant and has sought to assure the village that the plan will provide adequate on-site parking as well as providing a smooth flow of customer traffic. He pointed out that a bank formerly occupied the space
Pirro noted that Larchmont’s zoning code requires six parking spaces for the size of the proposed Dunkin’ Donuts and that six of the spaces at the site will be dedicated for the store’s use.
The store operator said that it will be using what it calls “a cutting-edge strategy used in many modern drive-thru establishments” that minimizes wait times and congestion. This involves the use of a Dunkin’ Donuts “app” that allows customers to pre-order on their mobile devices and then just pick up at the location as well as point of sales devices and self-checkout terminals.
“As applied to this location, a staff member will take orders and process payments from drive-up customers in line using a mobile POS (point of sales) system,” Daniel Chiaravalle, a member of the Men at Work LLC said. “The use of this navigator is in addition to counter staff working a stationary terminal. An employee with a tablet having a payment module brings the ordering process directly to the customer in line.”
The applicant said that much of the business at the store will come from pedestrians going to and from the nearby Metro-North train station as well as from drive-thru customers. It said that based on traffic studies for the Palmer Avenue location and studies of traffic at other Dunkin’ Donuts drive-thru locations it would expect customers could easily be accommodated at the two-lane drive-thru that is planned for the Larchmont site. It also noted that at least one other Dunkin’ Donuts location the average time for a customer to complete a transaction was 38 seconds and the average time to serve a customer was 48 seconds.
Pirro asked that the Larchmont Planning Board hold a public hearing on the plan at its Oct. 25 meeting.
