Building the Future of Franchise Restaurants

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After learning the lessons of operating during the pandemic, restaurant franchises and individual owners are making physical changes to their locations to better suit customer demands going forward.

The new normal in restaurant design incorporates the lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic. More people prefer to pick up meals in their car and have become accustomed to curbside service. Inspired by enforced social distancing, some restaurant franchises are rethinking old assumptions and design patterns. For example, Taco Bell has debuted a new restaurant design in response to the pandemic, explained in a CNN Business article:

The most significant difference between the new and old restaurant designs is the size. Taco Bell is cutting back on dining room seating and adding a second drive-thru lane dedicated to pick-up orders made on its app. Inside, customers will also see more digital kiosks in addition to human staff that will still take orders.

There’s also curbside pickup for contactless pickups and “bellhops”— masked employees stationed outside taking customers’ orders on digital tablets.

Existing restaurant locations must also adapt to changing preferences — from accommodating curbside service to expanding outdoor seating. To deal with all of these construction needs, restaurant or franchise owners should look for a general contractor with extensive restaurant experience.

Leon Williams Contractors, a Maryville construction company, has that experience in building food service buildings and locations for customers including Which Wich and Chick-fil-A. We offer a full range of construction services from pre-construction consultation and site assessment to project management to value engineering.

If you’re a restaurant owner wanting to build a new facility from the ground up, build out a commercial space, or renovate an existing location, we’re ready to help. Give us a call at (865) 982-1734, or contact Leon Williams Contractors online to learn more.

Advantages of Design-Build Construction for Your Project

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What’s the not-so-secret recipe for successfully completing construction projects on time and under budget? That would be teamwork, plain and simple.

Teamwork in integral to the design-build construction services that we offer at Leon Williams Contractors, your Maryville construction expert. This involves a collaborative approach where our team works hand-in-hand with an outside design firm from the start of a project.

The Design-Build Institute of America describes the design-build model as an effective way to streamline the construction process:

The owner manages only one contract with a single point of responsibility. The designer and contractor work together from the beginning, as a team, providing unified project recommendations to fit the owner’s schedule and budget. Any changes are addressed by the entire team, leading to collaborative problem-solving and innovation, not excuses or blame-shifting.

This approach allows for increased cooperation and coordination as the project proceeds — minimizing delays, reducing costs and mistakes, and reducing paperwork. We’ve put the approach to work for many clients throughout East Tennessee.

Not every contractor is suited to provide construction design-build services. It requires a team-oriented mindset. At Leon Williams, we believe the foundation of a successful project is reliable communication and attentive on-site management.

This carries over into our day-to-day operations throughout the lifespan of a project — from site design and to carrying out the final punch list, we listen, respond to concerns, and help solve problems before they because costly issues. A project isn’t complete until we’ve met all the expectations of the project owner.

If you’re interested in learning how our design-build construction services could benefit your next project, contact Leon Williams Contractors today.

 

Leon Williams Believes in the Power of Client Relationships

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Leon Williams Contractors LLC is proud to be the Maryville construction expert, serving our hometown and all East Tennessee. Want to know what we’re proudest of? The relationships we’ve made along the way.

For more than 30 years, we’ve built restaurants and churches and businesses and facilities for some of the region’s universities. Leon Williams, our founder, has been involved in construction even longer. He started out working with his father and uncle, in 1964, before founding the business that became Leon Williams Contractors in 1986.

Today, Leon Williams Contractors continues to embody his promise to only provide the highest levels of value and quality. We commit to:

  • Attentive on-site management
  • Reliable communication
  • Providing quality
  • Acting with high ethical standards.

When it comes to any commercial construction project, you need a trustworthy contractor. Without attention to details, small mistakes can snowball to huge problems down the road. If you’re building a new church, a new office, or just want your facility renovated, you shouldn’t have to worry about these issues.

That’s where we come in. Leon Williams Contractors will treat your project like it’s our own. As proven value-engineering experts, we’ll be on the lookout for potential problems, working with our clients to simplify the building process and get them more bang for the buck by finding ways to get the most out of their money. Most of all, we promise to listen and always act in the best interests of our clients.

In our decades in the business, Leon Williams has become an expert at preventing problems before they start. We’ll treat you like a partner, and we’ll listen to you concerns. Contact Leon Williams Contractors online or give us a call at (865) 982-1734 to learn more.

Spruce Up Your Business with a New Façade

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Don’t underestimate the power of a facelift. A new façade can quickly transform a commercial building, boosting its curb appeal and generating increased traffic and brand awareness. On top of that, a façade installation can provide many of the same benefits of a full-scale renovation or new construction at a fraction of the cost — and with far less inconvenience.

Fast & Friendly

New construction can take years to plan and complete. Full renovations may require excessive interruption of business and inconvenience customers and vendors. Façade improvements, on the other hand, can be wrapped up in a matter of weeks or months, and usually don’t impede operations or create barriers for foot traffic.

When completed, a new façade might include improved lighting, more visible signage, and pleasant landscaping. A stylish, modern look that’s legible from a distance encourages curiosity and invites more traffic than an outdated, rundown or generic exterior.

Façade projects are a good option in many different situations, whether it’s a new business moving into its first space or an existing business rebranding, relocating or opening a new location. Any company that wants to quickly freshen up its appearance and attract new attention can consider a façade improvement as an effective, affordable option.

Save Energy (and Money)

Before dismissing façade upgrades as purely cosmetic, think about the potential energy savings. Many older buildings lose heat in the winter and cool air during the summer through uninsulated storefronts and old, drafty windows and doors. Insulation, new energy-efficient building materials and energy-saving windows and doors can improve indoor comforts and help reduce utility costs for years to come.

Leon Williams Contractors is a Maryville construction firm with decades of experience working closely with business owners to ensure the best possible results for their commercial projects. We can assist you in assessing your company’s needs and work with you to create the right solution. To learn more about façade improvements or other renovation and construction options, contact us today.

Finding the Right Site for Your 2021 Construction Needs

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Looking for a site for a new commercial facility can be a chore. It’s important to find the right match to meet your business needs and ensure your success. As the saying goes, it’s all about “Location, location, location.” It’s important for any business. Is there enough traffic to justify building a retail location? Can the property be easily accessed or will inconvenient roadway access drive away customers?

Site Assessment

Leon Williams Contractors, your Maryville construction expert, can help you find the perfect site for your facility. Our preplanning and site assessment services are thorough. We’ll ensure there are no unexpected, expensive surprises at a proposed location such as environmental issues requiring remediation, geotechnical issues that would need overly-extensive sitework to overcome and insufficient utilities or infrastructure.

If you think that finding the right site for your commercial facility will take care of any potential issues, that’s not quite the full story. Businesses also have to consider what happens to the site once construction begins and design plans are being implemented. A construction company needs expertise and the ability to work well with designer and architects to execute their vision exactly. Otherwise, problems can creep in.

We Can Help

That is where we can help. The team at Leon Williams Contractors has decades of design-build construction experience working closely with our clients and their design firms on commercial construction projects. We take pride in properly executing all aspects of a project, ensuring that both commercial facilities and sites are built out in the best way possible.

At Leon Williams Contactors, we’re ready to assist our East Tennessee clients assess the right site for their building projects. If you are ready to talk about your construction plans for 2021, contact us today.

Etowah City Hall

Looking Back at the Accomplishments of 2020

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This has been a challenging year in East Tennessee, but Leon Williams Contractors has been proud to continue helping our clients create new and renovated spaces.Etowah City Hall

Etowah City Hall

After beginning work in late 2019, Leon Williams Contractors completed construction on a new 3,200-square-foot city hall in Etowah, Tennessee. The new Etowah City Hall is the city’s new permanent dedicated building for municipal government. The new one-story structure complements the historic L&N Depot, which was extensively renovated in 2012. The depot currently houses a railroad museum, the Etowah Chamber of Commerce, and serves as a facility for public and private events.

Benchmark Physical Therapy

Leon Williams completed the new Benchmark Physical Therapy location in Maryville in July. “We were thrilled with the work done by Leon Williams Contractors,” said Jason Hutcherson, Benchmark Physical Therapy facilities director. “They brought our project in on budget, ahead of time, and with a great final product. Their communication and professionalism is above board and they went above and beyond to make sure our move was a success. I will certainly use them again for projects in the area.”

So Many Projects

During the past year, our Maryville construction experts have worked on a variety of great projects around East Tennessee including:

  • The Donut Shop, renovating the flat iron building across from Regions Bank in Knoxville’s Fourth & Gill neighborhood.
  • Renovations for the Blount County Landfill Office.
  • Shift Church Knoxville opened in its new facility on Alcoa Highway.
  • Repair of damages at Everett Hills Baptist Church and Pecks Memorial Church in Blount County and working to help develop upcoming projects for several other area churches.
  • Construction began on the TLC Maryville facility, which is expected to open early 2021.
  • The new Freshens located inside Lupton Hall at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga.
  • Various trade work on Pellissippi State Community College’s new Multi-Purpose Building at the Hardin Valley campus, the new classroom Building for TCAT Morristown and the new Anderson County Higher Education Center for TCAT.

As your Maryville construction expert, we always love to assist our East Tennessee clients with their building projects. If you’ve seen our work and want to talk about your construction need for 2021, we’d love to talk. Contact Leon Williams Contractors today.

Food Court Construction by Leon Williams in Tennessee

Does Your Restaurant Need Renovations to Support Delivery and Pickup?

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Let’s face it, the disruptions to the hospitality industry created by the COVID-19 pandemic have proven challenging to everyone. The virus, and the premium it places on sanitation and social distancing, could be with us a long time. A new era in food service is already here.

Restaurants of the Future

Food Court Construction by Leon Williams in TennesseeThe biggest problem faced by restaurant owners in 2020 has been two-fold: How do I protect my business while also serving my loyal customers? The answer has been around for a long time — pickup and delivery — but many sit-down restaurants didn’t have the right footprint and set-up to do this, putting them at a disadvantage.

The restaurants of the future, those that can survive in both stable and volatile markets, will likely include enhanced curbside service, double food production lines, kitchens that prepare food for delivery only, robust online ordering and prepay platforms, ample outdoor seating, separate takeout doors, and reduced dine-in areas with increased sanitation systems. There’s a lot of work to do.

Everything you Need

Leon Williams Contractors, a Maryville construction company, has the expertise to help you transition to the new business model. We ensure that you, the stakeholder, have plenty of input at the outset. We have experience in building retail, food service and outdoor spaces, for customers including Which Wich and Chick-fil-A. We can do everything you need to create a winning location for your employees and your guests.

If you’re a restaurant owner looking to modify an existing location or if you want to try something new from the ground up, we might be the right contractor for you. Give us a call at (865) 982-1734, or contact Leon Williams Contractors online to learn more.

 

Leon Williams Helped Create a New Landmark

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East Tennessee is proud of its history, and Leon Williams Contractors, a Maryville construction company, is proud to partner with local governments to create structures that honor that history.

We recently a completed a new 3,200-square-foot city hall in Etowah, Tennessee.  It’s on Tennessee Avenue, adjacent to the historic L&N Depot, a 114-year-old state landmark. We built the new one-story building to complement the depot, which currently houses the Etowah Chamber of Commerce and a railroad museum. The depot has been a centerpiece for the city, serving as a facility for public and private events, and is now paired with the city hall.

For the past few years, Etowah’s city government had been renting offices in a building north of downtown. That was after moving out of a space in the city’s Carnegie Library.

Now, the city boasts a great new building that replaces a vacant lot, complements the L&N Depot and supplements the historic character of the downtown area. We’re glad to give the city employees an excellent new workspace and to provide city residents with an attractive municipal building to be proud of.

We Can Help

At Leon Williams, we have a long history of working with governmental bodies and educational systems to create high-quality spaces. We’ll work with your organization to refine the scope of work and develop a reasonable and accurate budget ahead of time. Our experts will help identify potential cost savings in the design, materials and infrastructure.

We pride ourselves on our communication with stakeholders. We’ll make sure everyone is on the same page when it comes to goals, timelines and expectations before a project begins. We also provide site assessment services to help avoid nasty surprises that require additional work after the fact, preventing expensive work delays.

For more information about Leon Williams Contractors, visit www.lwcontractorstn.com or call (865) 982-1734.

How an Experienced Construction Firm Can Prevent Common Problems

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Picture this: You’re a month from opening day for your new building, when your construction firm tells you that, due to mistakes in the process, you’ll need to open three weeks behind schedule. And you’ll need to spend thousands of dollars to do it.Modern skyscrapers in business district.

While this might sound like a nightmare, it can be a reality for developers and business owners across the country. Building projects have so many independent moving parts that, without a skilled and experienced construction firm at the helm, things can quickly go off course and remain unnoticed until it’s too late. But you can trust the Maryville commercial construction experts at Leon Williams Contractors to get things right the first time.

What Construction Problems Can I Encounter on my New Build?

By far one of the most common construction issues that can occur on a project are budget overruns. These aren’t limited to small, unlicensed contractors or inexperienced teams — well-planned projects like government buildings, infrastructure, airports and even the International Space Station have run over budget.

Part of the reason is that, when you’re building a project, small mistakes can add up into big problems down the road. Fixing these problems means more time on the jobsite, more money spent on materials and labor, and hours of lost time.

Even worse, these mistakes can pop up at the most inconvenient times. Right when you think you’re ready to open, a mistake in the process can mean a lengthy delay. For a small business, that means big trouble before you’ve even opened your doors.

What Can I Do to Prevent Construction Issues?

When you’re building a new home for your franchise or want a new office for your organization, you shouldn’t have to face that kind of pressure. You want your project to go smoothly from the start, and that’s where we come in. Leon Williams has more than three decades building for clients in East Tennessee, and we’ve gotten pretty good at preventing problems before they start. Contact Leon Williams Contractors online or give us a call at (865) 982-1734 to learn more.

Protecting the Community During the Coronavirus Pandemic

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Leon Williams Contractors is dedicated to protecting its employees and the public from the spread of COVID-19. We enforce workplace standards and procedures as recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control to prevent infection.

To protect our workers and clients, we are limiting the number of individuals present onsite and requiring they practice social distancing. We’ve also distributed supplies of disinfectant and hand sanitizer to each jobsite.

In addition, all workers are required to clean their hands frequently and anyone with a temperature or symptoms of sickness is not allowed to work. We continue to monitor the situation and follow guidelines provided by city, state and federal governments.

The construction industry as a whole takes coronavirus seriously. Leon Williams remains committed to protecting our communities during this time.

As a provider of essential services, Leon Williams Contractors is ready to help with your commercial construction needs. For more information, see us online or give us a call at (865) 982-1734.