Plans for westside Popeyes falls through, Rehberg says

Plans to open a Popeyes Louisana Kitchen restaurant on the northwest side of Great Falls this summer have fallen through for business reasons, Billings businessman Denny Rehberg said Saturday.

Even worse, the former Montana congressman told the Tribune, the civilian military agency that operates retail businesses on U.S. Army and Air Force bases blocked his efforts to place a Popeyes on the east side of the Missouri River. It claimed such restaurants would provide too much competition for the limited-scale Popeyes and Burger King restaurants the agency runs on Malmstrom Air Force Base, he said.

Rehberg and his wife Jan own the Popeyes franchise rights in Montana and also own some Burger Kings in Montana.

They opened their Popeyes restaurant in Billings last spring, one in Kalispell in December and are due to open one in Missoula soon.

In March they announced plans to open a 2,700-square-foot quick serve Popeyes restaurant in Great Falls employing 70 workers by July on the 400 block of Smelter Avenue Northeast on the lot that once housed the westside Burger Master.

Rehberg said those plans fell through because the businessman-developer they were working with was unable to find a needed second business for the lot in a timely manner and instead sold the property to another developer considering other plans for the property.

He and his wife are disappointed those westside plans fell through, Rehberg said, because he had spotted the lot and spent some money designing building plans to place the restaurant there.

And they’re being effectively blocked from opening a Popeyes restaurant on the east side of the Missouri River along busy 10th Avenue South by the Army & Air Force Exchange Service, or AAFES, he said.

AAFES officials have taken procedural action protesting the construction of additional Popeyes and Burger King restaurants in Great Falls because the agency operates a Popeyes and Burger King at Malmstrom, Rehberg said.

Effectively he’s been prevented from opening a Popeyes at the former Hoagieville restaurant site, at 1125 10th Ave. S., or near the new Wal-Mart store being built near the east end of 10th Avenue South, even closer to Malmstrom, he said.

Rehberg said he doesn’t agree with the agency’s blocking additional restaurants in Great Falls, particularly since only airmen, their families and civilian military works have access to the Malmstrom Popeyes.

“It has limited access, limited hours and a limited menu,” he said, stressing that his beef is not with Malmstrom but with AAFES officials he considers overly protective.