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The Chick-fil-A Harbour View restaurant in North Suffolk is temporarily closing for business to begin construction on a capacity expansion project.

The last day of business will be Thursday, with the construction expected to last up to eight weeks, according to Dan Curran, owner/operator of Chick-fil-A Harbour View, located at 6212 College Drive. This project has been planned for about a year and has so far not been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, Curran said.

“We are getting what’s called a capacity increase, and by that we mean we are doing everything to the restaurant (that’s) appropriate and necessary to be able to serve more guests than we do now, which is a pretty high number,” he said.

The parking lot will be expanded into the field behind the restaurant, adding 42 new parking spaces to the 48 existing spaces, according to Curran.

A permanent, double drive-through will be installed and will replace the temporary tent that the restaurant has been using for drive-through customers. This new one will have a canopy with heaters and misters to ease the effects of the elements for employees, he said.

The restaurant is preparing to keep up with customer demand, including a high-performance upgrade for the kitchen, with new, state-of-the-art equipment.

“Our kitchen is going to be remodeled to be like a rocket ship. It’s going to be so high volume (and) so fast,” Curran said.

While business was hurt by closing the dining room, Curran emphasized it was “the appropriate thing to do” to help slow the spread of COVID-19.

“It allows us then just that much more ability to keep our team members separated,” he said, which helps the team achieve social distancing.

Team members are now rotating in shifts to serve long lines of drive-through customers as efficiently as possible.  Curran said that they’re currently serving about 145 customers hourly — and that their capacity will only go up, once the expansion is complete.

“Right now, when we do orders outside, face-to-face with the iPads, we do about 145 cars an hour,” he said, “but we think with the double drive-through permanently installed, we can do over 200 cars an hour through our drive-through.”

Chick-fil-A Harbour View is also hiring 50 additional service professionals to its roster of approximately 110-120 people, so that they can keep up with demand when they reopen a few months from now.

“We’re really looking to increase our staff so that we are ready — once we start to come out of this difficult time — to really be there for Suffolk, (and) to be there for our customers,” Curran said.

Find out more about these Chick-fil-A Harbour View positions online at higherme.com and zippyapp.com.