T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY — Marshalltown Arby’s Franchisee Steve Votaw, holding scissors, cuts the ribbon on the new location at 3405 S. Center St. on Wednesday afternoon surrounded by his employees and the Chamber ambassadors. The restaurant relocated back in September after previously operating out of a space on the Marshalltown Mall property.

Steve Votaw, a Kearney, Neb. native who franchises the Arby’s restaurants in Marshalltown and Burlington, couldn’t be happier to have a new building with a prime location just off of Highway 30 at 3405 S. Center St. The fast food giant has been situated there since September after formally moving out of a facility Votaw had leased on the Marshalltown Mall property.

Votaw and his employees celebrated the new space during a ribbon cutting with the Chamber ambassadors on Wednesday afternoon, and he reflected on his family’s history with Arby’s in Marshalltown dating back to 1992. Back in the 1980s, his father Jim, an accountant by trade, noticed that a family he was doing taxes for had been successful in franchising Taco John’s restaurants, so he began to explore other opportunities. In the process, he discovered that there weren’t many Arby’s in Nebraska, Iowa or Illinois, and he partnered with fellow accountants to launch restaurants in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City.

Jim’s holdings changed over the years, but he always kept the Marshalltown and Burlington locations and eventually passed it on to his son. A few years back, however, before power had even been shut off at the mall, Steve noticed a substantial drop in sales here.

“We were eyeballing a move, and we were keeping our eyes peeled on sites that we thought might make sense here in Marshalltown,” he said. “We were here visiting one day, and we saw this building. And my dad calls me up and he says ‘I think there’s a great location for us here in town,’ and within 24 hours, he had signed an agreement to buy the building.”

Previously, the space, which was built as a car dealership and was once owned by the community college, had been an Iowa Workforce Development office before sitting vacant for several years.

“It’s a much better location as far as traffic is concerned. You want to be here, you want to be where Culver’s is or maybe way down where Taco John’s and Hardees are, but the rest of that stretch, unless you’re by a destination, and the only destination is Walmart. The mall is obviously not the spot,” he said. “(It’s) a better location and a much better facility.”

Votaw never committed to buying the old building, but he has a different perspective on the new digs and hopes to recruit another tenant to occupy the rest of the space — ideas he floated included a medical or dental office.

With the big move out of the way, Votaw’s staff can get back to focusing on their well-known roast beef sandwiches or seasonal favorites like the deep-fried turkey — and of course, the signature curly fries and sauces on the side.

“We’re here to stay. Had we not found what we thought was gonna be a decent location, we might have closed up shop for good if we couldn’t make it work. Because it wasn’t working over there,” Votaw said.