Here's the information I was able to dig up on various web sites:
Solomon Ets-Hokin and James Chung with Terranomics paired up to represent Southern California's popular hamburger chain Fatburger in the lease of 2,000 square feet of retail space along Theatre Way in Redwood City, CA. Fatburger signed on to a 10-year deal to commence on April 1, 2006. The lessor was Blake Hunt Ventures, Inc. This will be just the second Fatburger location in all of Northern California.The only existing Bay Area Fatburger, which opened last year, is in Pleasant Hill. And I guess this PR blurb isn't counting both the Pleasant Hill AND Sacramento locations as NorCal?
Rapper E40 is one of the investors behind the local franchises. Here's an excerpt from an August 2005 interview with him:
Q: Why did you start a franchise of Fatburger?
A: Back in the day, if you listened to any of my raps, I'm always talking about buying a franchise, and not buying an $85,000 car before you buy a house. The first thing I wanted to get was a Popeye's Chicken ... I was looking on the Food Channel and they're saying that hamburgers are No. 1. So my wife, she's good friends with Merton Hanks, ex-49er. Merton knows Chester McGlockton, he's doing the Fatburgers, so I called Chester. He's [McGlockton] a good friend and my neighbor before he was traded to the Kansas City Chiefs. He played for the Oakland Raiders at the time ... Chester knows I'm a stable guy, good dude, family man, businessman, and we got together and put in on 10 of them. The first one opened up two weeks ago [in Pleasant Hill], and the second opens up in Redwood City, hopefully in March. Me and Chester got all the rights of them in Northern California.
Side notes to this story:
- According to the city of RWC, the new downtown cinema/retail complex that will include Fatburger will also be home to a Marble Slab! The complex is scheduled for a spring 2006 completion. (The movie theatre will have 20 screens.)
- Some of the other cities where Fatburger plans to open up shop include Palo Alto, San Mateo, Cupertino, Milpitas and San Jose.
