Initial approval of a preliminary development plan for a new Golden Corral restaurant on South Lindbergh Boulevard recently was given by the Green Park Board of Aldermen.

An ordinance approving the preliminary development plan for the steak-and-buffet restaurant is scheduled to be considered when the Board of Aldermen meets at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 17, at City Hall, 11100 Mueller Road.

The Golden Corral will be constructed at 6110 S. Lindbergh Blvd., near a new Lion’s Choice restaurant that currently is being built at 6032 S. Lindbergh Blvd., near the former site of Fantasy Coachworks. The development project also calls for realigning Yuma and Flori drives at their intersections with Lindbergh Boulevard.

Once the new Lion’s Choice opens and the existing Lion’s Choice at 6106 S. Lindbergh Blvd. is demolished, construction will begin on the new Golden Corral restaurant.

No residents spoke during a Jan. 20 public hearing on Golden Corral’s preliminary development plan, which the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission previously had recommended be approved by the Board of Aldermen.

Gary Hurst of Golden Corral told aldermen his company owns and operates three existing Golden Corral restaurants. The new Green Park restaurant will be slightly more than 11,000 square feet in size and be able to seat 420 people, he said.

“… We would most likely be hiring somewhere between 175 to 200 employees to begin with. As the opening starts to settle down, we would probably settle in somewhere in the 80- to 90-employee range,” he said. “We are now in our third year for our new location over in Shiloh, Ill. The first full 12 months that we were open over there, we served about 450,000 guests and we expect the location here in Green Park to exceed that considerably.

“The reason I say that is the demographics that we have studied for the Green Park area are much stronger than the Shiloh, Ill., area …,” he added.