Fans of Potbelly Sandwich Shop won’t have to wait much longer to get their fix in Springfield.
In fall 2022, Rob Wilbern, a certified public accountant who also owns Robert’s Automotive and several other businesses in Springfield, signed a franchise agreement with the parent company for Potbelly. He announced plans to open a total of five stores throughout central Illinois, but said identifying appropriate locations has been a challenge.
“Finding real estate is hard,” Wilbern told SBJ. “The west side of Springfield was our first choice, but we were unable to locate space. We pivoted and went to Champaign, but spent a good year looking there and just opened that store on Tuesday.”
Now, Wilbern has partnered with Memorial Health to open a Springfield Potbelly location inside the Memorial Learning Center, 228 W. Miller St.
“We’ve been working on a deal with Memorial since last May and came to a mutually exclusive arrangement,” said Wilbern. “They’re going to close the existing café, Food for Thought, and we’ll operate Potbelly’s in exchange for a piece of the sales for rent.”
Wilbern said the central location in the Medical District was a deciding factor. “You’ve got the Simmons Cancer Institute across the street, the Baylis center, Springfield Clinic has two buildings there, St. John’s is just a short jaunt away. And there aren’t many (dining) options in the Medical District.”
Wilbern said he also likes the proximity to downtown. “One of the main focuses for us is going to be the catering side of the business and to try to serve downtown Springfield, including all the state agencies nearby.”
Plans have already been submitted to the city of Springfield and Wilbern hopes to begin demolition in early February and open in March. He said the remodeling process should be much easier than it was for the Champaign store. “This is actually very easy compared to what we just went through, which was eight months of renovation. This one is going to only take a few weeks once plans are improved, because it’s not a total demolition.”
As far as what’s next, Wilbern hasn’t given up on finding a west-side location in Springfield. “There’s nothing definite, but we’ve pursued multiple properties. We’re talking to a landlord right now and waiting to see what happens with the current tenant,” he said.
He said he’s also purchased a food truck that will be going back and forth between Champaign and Springfield once the weather warms up. “We’re going to focus on events that have 500 people or more,” Wilbern said.
Potbelly first opened in Chicago in 1977 and has now expanded to 400 corporate-owned locations throughout the U.S. and another 40 franchised restaurants. The company is planning to increase the number of franchisees and target additional markets throughout the country as part of a franchise growth acceleration initiative.
