Guess Where a New Biggby Coffee Popped Up In Battle Creek?

Urbandale residents are happy.  All of a sudden, they might have two great new choices for coffee in Urbandale Plaza.

Recently, Rock ‘n Roll donuts opened in the Plaza.   This week, a pre-fabricated Biggby was delivered there, popping up like a mushroom.  This will be Solano’s fourth store, once he is able to work through the process of getting the final approval from the city.

The newest store, like the one in Pennfield, is a BCubed Modular walkup/drive-thru, designed by BCubed Manufacturing LLC in Alpena.   It’s 350 square feet, but has a slightly different look on the exterior from the Pennfield building.

Solano said they’ve complied with all of the city’s requests.  His site plan was approved in mid-March.  He finally has been granted a work permit, but now a city inspector is requiring the unprecedented second layer requiring the manufacturer to get another set of state approvals.   Solano hoped to open the new store on June 1^st.  Now he’s not sure when it might open.  He acknowledges that the city may have the right to ask for the additional state approval, but said those have not been required in a dozen other municipalities, including Lansing, and were not required for the Pennfield store.

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Solano, a former packaging engineer at Post Foods, opened his first Biggby store in 2016 at 1125 East Michigan Avenue in Wattles Park.  The MSU Grad first sipped the Biggby brew while a student in East Lansing.   The first Biggby Coffee opened there in 1995.  Solano also owns Biggby Stores at 1395 Capital Ave NE across from Bailey Park, and also bought the existing store at 5466 Beckley Road.

Solano and his family have been in Battle Creek now for 15 years.  “I first became familiar with Battle Creek during the years of 1994-2000 while coming into town for my Marine Corps Reserve obligation. After graduating college, I lived in Chicago for nearly 5 years and then moved back to Battle Creek to work at Kellogg’s where I met my wife. I then took a job at Post Foods.”

Coffee connoisseurs were talking about the new place on the Carryout Club Facebook page.

“Biggby cube in Urbandale plaza!! We've been waiting for something like this for a long time in this area. I'm guessing it'll open soon considering it wasn’t there yesterday afternoon but was this morning. — feeling excited. “

The first Biggby Coffee store, on Beckley Road, opened in Battle Creek in 2012.   The company has nearly 250 stores in eleven states.   Time will tell when the next one opens in Battle Creek.