Nov. 2—A Chipotle and an AutoZone will be opening up in Willoughby Hills' west end business district next year.

According to Mayor Chris Hallum, the two businesses have officially signed leases to be located in the Chardon Bishop Plaza, 28301 Chardon Road.

"The AutoZone will be one of only two distribution centers in the Cleveland area," he said. "They also intend on moving their administrative offices to this location."

Several other businesses have also signed letters of intent. Hallum said the city plans to share those businesses with the public once they have signed leases.

Earlier this year, the Willoughby Hills Planning Commission approved split lots at The Shoppes at Willoughby Hills as part of its redevelopment. The redevelopment is being funded by J. Scott Scheel, owner of Chardon Bishop Plaza and Shoppes.

Alongside Scheel is also former City Council President Ray Somich, who has a vision to reinvigorate the corner of Chardon and Bishop roads.

As part of the lot splits, the former Blockbuster lot will now be split into two parcels, one of which will be the Chipotle. According to City Engineer Pietro DiFranco, everything conformed to code, so approval was recommended.

The reason for the Blockbuster building site being divided into two parcels is there aren't too many tenants who want to be in that type of building anymore, Somich observed, also noting the building was about 40 years old.

"It's too big for one, it's too small to have a couple of them with drive-throughs that most restaurants and other types of businesses want today," he said. "It just wasn't accommodating anybody, so we decided we would demolish the old building and in this, there actually will eventually be two buildings put one, one on each parcel, that will be smaller in size together than the one Blockbuster was."

Somich said Chipotle is a great, national tenant type of business that he wanted to get into the city for a long time.

"I think a lot of people will be happy to have them here for residents," he said.

The Chipotle parcel will be located closer to Sheetz, 28601 Chardon Road, while the other parcel will be closer to the driveway, Somich said.