Sonic building 9 restaurants in Las Vegas

Phil Levine

Thursday, Jan. 20, 2000 | 11:18 a.m.

Las Vegas fast food fans will soon have twice as many Sonic Drive-Ins to choose from.

By next year, Oklahoma City-based Sonic Food Corp. plans to double the number of its Metropolitan Las Vegas franchise stores from nine to 18 outlets.

All of the new franchises will be run by Albuquerque-based Sonvada Foods Inc.

"Las Vegas is truly one of the most desirable business markets in the country right now," said Sonvada President Bob Mott. "We're hoping to have two Las Vegas operations up and running by the end of the year, with the rest following soon after."

Although he'd like to open the Las Vegas stores as soon as possible, Mott said the waiting periods for building permits will likely determine how soon he can be open for business.

Sonic currently has eight Las Vegas-based stores, and one in Henderson. B & B Consultants, of Las Cruces, N.M., will continue to operate the existing nine local franchises.

Mott said the new stores would be built in different regions so as not to compete with the existing locations.

No specific sites have been chosen, although the target market for the new outlets will be the northern and western sections of Las Vegas.

Once all nine stores are open, Mott expects to have about 220 full and part-time employees.

Mott arrives in this market well-versed in the world of fast-food. In addition to the new Sonic stores, he currently operates 32 Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises throughout the Southwest.

Sonvada is working with Las Vegas real estate broker Colliers International in site selection for the new stores. The decision over whether to rent or buy property for each location will be based on land availability and cost.

Founded in 1953, Sonic Corp. currently operates more than 2,000 drive-ins in 27 states nationwide.