The business landscape near I-74 at the Batesville exit is improving with a new franchise arriving and another changing its looks.

Anytime Fitness, to be located at 10 Bedel Boulevard, could bring as many as six full-time jobs to the area. “We always try to hire local,” reported Chris Slater Friday. Slater and Mike Gelfgot, Greensburg, and John Spence, Bright, own Spence Inc., Greensburg. Batesville will be the company’s seventh Anytime Fitness franchise in Indiana.

A new exercise center “just adds to the quality of life,” said Mayor Rick Fledderman. “It gives people another option.”

Anytime Fitness, which will be east of LaRosa’s and between Indiana Bank & Trust and the Comfort Inn, will be housed in a 7,050-square-foot building, said general contractor and project manager Mark Hays, Venture Services, Seymour. Adjacent retail space totaling 3,170 square feet will be leased to one or two tenants.

Spence Inc. owners chose this city because “Batesville fits in the business model of a smaller town where we can really have an impact,” Slater said.

Hays said Oct. 30 he expected to get state approval for the construction within a week. The company will seek a variance from the Batesville Board of Zoning Appeals Nov. 5 because a detention basin will be closer to the building than the required 50 feet, according to Building Commissioner Tim Macyauski.

Now Dave O’Mara Inc., North Vernon, workers are preparing the site, which includes hauling in 200 loads of fill dirt. That job could be finished by around Nov. 10 if the weather cooperates, then building footers will be poured. Construction will take about four months, Hays estimated.

After lightning ignited the top of KFC/Taco Bell Aug. 10, the restaurant closed for a few days, then just the drive-thru re-opened, said Janey Lewis, who has franchised the site with husband Rick for the past 15 years.

“I had a 10-year upgrade due. We had already planned that,” she said, so repairs are being incorporated with improving the restaurant.

The drive-thru closed Oct. 15 so Kuhns Group, Inc., Waynesville, Ohio, and Gausman Masonry,

Batesville, could remodel the interior with a new color scheme, and tear off painted brick and stucco and install red brick on the exterior. “Everybody thinks we are enlarged it, but we didn’t. It is taller,” Lewis noted.

While the insurance company paid for fire damage, the couple, on the verge of signing a 20-year contract with KFC/Taco Bell, are investing $300,000 in the upgrade.

Even though the eatery has been closed for over two weeks, “I have been paying my crew,” about 30 full- and part-time employees. The Lewises’ insurance policy covered that expense.

She hopes to re-open the restaurant Nov. 6 or 7 if upcoming weather allows for blacktopping.

Have any other business owners shown an interest in locating in Batesville? “Not recently,” answered the mayor, who also serves as the city’s economic development director.

A drive through the I-74 area shows several commercial opportunities. There are for sale signs at 5.48 acres that face I-74 west of Wendy’s and 0.5 acres at State Road 229 and Frontage Road, zoned Business-2. Both next to Wendy’s, the former Java Hut property is for sale, while the defunct Starbucks sits empty with no sign.

Also on the market is property north of State Road 46 near Mitchell Avenue zoned B-3.

Fledderman has a message for residents. “I just would encourage them to shop local and support all our local businesses. In doing that, we can stabilize our retailers. We just have to work together to ride through the economic downturn right now.”