There’s little doubt that Loudoun County has plenty of Starbucks locations, but there is apparently always room for one more.
The Burn has learned a new Starbucks is in the works for Ashburn – and it breaks a trend we’ve seen recently.
The new Starbucks is coming to the Loudoun Station development off Shellhorn Road. That’s over near the Ashburn Metro stop.
According to Comstock, which is the developer of the center, the new coffee shop will be coming to an 1,800 s.f. spot on Gramercy Park Drive in between the AMC movie theater and the Sola Salons.
We said that this new location breaks a trend and here is what we mean – in urban areas, you often find Starbucks coffee shops located in “in line” positions – in other words nestled in a row of storefronts between other businesses.
But out here in the suburbs, the trend has been in the opposite direction. Locally, we have seen several Starbucks close their in-line positions in order to move to a spot with a drive-thru lane.
Drive-thru lanes have proven to be a big revenue boost for Starbucks (and other restaurants) and this is especially true after the pandemic.
The Starbucks at the Broadlands Village Center moved from an in-line position to free-standing building nearby. The same thing happened in Leesburg where the Starbucks moved across East Market Street to a new location in order to add a drive-thru.
And as we speak, plans are afoot for the Starbucks at Cascades Marketplace in Sterling to move to a different building in the center in order to obtain a drive-thru lane.
So the fact that Starbucks is building an in-line “urban” style location in the Loudoun Station development is noteworthy. Undoubtedly hoping for increasing foot traffic there as the center and the nearby Metro grow in usage.
(Image at top: Starbucks)