Gordy Family Has Acreage In Oconee For New Varsity Restaurant

The Varsity Restaurants announced its plans to build a new store in Oconee County in a full-page advertisement in the Athens Banner-Herald on Sunday, followed by a posting on its Facebook page on Monday.

That Facebook posting led to a story at the top of the front page of the Banner-Herald on Tuesday. The paper had written several stories about the recent closing of the restaurant on West Broad Street at Milledge Avenue.

The Oconee Enterprise also put the announcement in a short story on the front page of its Thursday edition.

Both the full-page advertisement and the Facebook posting said the company will open two stores, one on Parkway Boulevard in Athens (although Parkway Boulevard is in Oconee County), and the other at the Gateway at University Parkway in Bethlehem in Barrow County.

The Gordy Family LP owns two parcels in Oconee County, one consisting of just less than 22 acres on Parkway Boulevard and the other of 13.5 acres at the corner of Plaza Parkway and the Oconee Connector.

The Gordy Family also owns The Varsity Restaurants.

Though the Facebook post says The Varsity will “break ground soon” at the new locations, the company has not filed any paperwork or plans for development of either of the Oconee County sites.

If The Varsity Restaurants goes ahead with plans to build a new store on Parkway Boulevard, it will be only the second business to locate on the roadway since the county built it to stimulate additional commercial growth in that pocket of the county in 2017.

For more on this story, please go to Oconee County Observations.