THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 15, 1995 TAG: 9512150517
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LON WAGNER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
The Dairy Queen at 17th Street and Atlantic Avenue in Virginia Beach is a 10-window, ``walk-up'' operation.
Normally, walk-up Dairy Queens don't do high-volume business, but Richard Maddox's DQ at the oceanfront isn't normal. It's the world's largest walk-up Dairy Queen, he said, and this summer it became the Dairy Queen store with the highest gross sales in the United States.
On an average summer day the Dairy Queen sells about $10,000 worth of ice cream and other food and drinks, Maddox said.
How? Well, it helps that the Dairy Queen sits next to 300 feet of open space leading up to the ocean. The outdoor stage next to the Dairy Queen, where bands play all summer, doesn't hurt sales either. But that's not luck - that's planning.
The Maddox family owns the land for the park. It paid $1.2 million to develop the park, then leased it back to the city for 99 years. For its part, Virginia Beach spends about $200,000 to bring entertainment to the spot.
The city this week presented Maddox with an ``Outstanding Commercial Development'' award, citing the Dairy Queen project as an example of private business working with city government.
``I don't have to tell you that the city of Virginia Beach is very reluctant when it comes time to try something new and different,'' Maddox said. ``But I can't say enough about what the city did to help pull this off.''
And there was quite a bit to pull off - and tear down. John and Gladys Maddox, Richard's parents, ran the Sea Escape Motel - originally called the Prince Charles - beginning in 1964. The city had public restrooms near the motel, which Maddox said were so ugly they were mockingly referred to as ``the bunkers.''
Maddox didn't really want to refurbish the motel, he said, because even a lot of sprucing up wouldn't have made it competitive.
``I don't think anybody thought that we needed another hotel down there,'' he said.
So the hotel, the parking lot and the bunkers were razed, and up sprang the Dairy Queen and the 17th Street Park. The public restrooms are now inside the Dairy Queen.
Maddox said he didn't set out to develop the world's largest walk-up Dairy Queen, but his family has been familiar with that type of food outlet for decades.
After leaving the Army, John Maddox in 1949 opened a Dairy Queen in Virginia Beach at 27th Street and Atlantic Avenue. That, too, was an unusual concept for its time.
``That's when franchising was very young,'' Maddox said. ``There were no McDonald's or Burger Kings or anything. Dairy Queen was one of the first.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
STEVE EARLEY/The Virginian-Pilot
by CNB