News Photo by Crystal Nelson Ashley Bloom, a barista and shift leader with Biggby, makes coffee on Aug. 30 at the modular Biggby drive-thru in the Meijer parking lot. The modular drive-thrus are manufactured in Alpena, at the old ATI Casting foundry.

ALPENA — What started as an idea for a small, modular drive-thru is turning into big business for longtime Alpena developer Jeff Konczak.

Konczak is the owner of BCubed, a business that has quickly made a home in Alpena manufacturing miniature drive-thru facilities at the former ATI Casting foundry on McKinley Avenue.

Konczak said he originally came up with the concept while the old Summit Sports building on Chisholm Street in downtown Alpena was being renovated into a Biggby Coffee shop.

That facility couldn’t have a drive-thru, so he began sketching the concept on an Arby’s napkin on his desk and saw an opportunity. The idea was for a small drive-thru shop to operate in parking lots of large retail stores or shopping centers.

He said the design is pretty unique, and there’s not much out there like it.

“Basically, the tower is the bathroom, the top of the tower is the mechanical room, and the main part is the kitchen, which houses all the coffee equipment,” he said of his design, which looks a bit like a boxcar. “When it leaves here, it’s fully loaded — all the freezers are in it, the plumbing is done, it’s already been inspected. We pull the building permits here in Alpena, so Alpena gets the revenue from the building permits.”

The initial prototype was manufactured at the former foundry and opened late last year in the parking lot of Meijer on M-32. BCubed has also manufactured modular drive-thrus for Biggby in Saugatuck and Battle Creek and is currently fulfilling orders for Swartz Creek and Birch Run.

Konczak said he currently has an exclusive agreement with Biggby, as well as two other brands for whom they will manufacture drive-thrus. Konczak declined to name the other brands.

The business currently has about 10 employees, who are able to manufacture two buildings a time out of what Konczak calls the small milling bay at the old foundry, while the larger manufacturing space is being renovated.

Once the renovation is complete, he expects to work on 10 or more facilities at a time.

“We have a very large backlog of facilities — South Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Kentucky — that we have on order that we will be building here,” he said. “Once we move to the next section, into the other section where we will be doing all of those buildings, we will probably be at 30 to 35 employees when all is said and done.”

Konczak said he considers the business to be “a hometown project” and has chosen to source all of his materials locally. Plumbing and mechanical needs come from from Alpena Supply Co. and appliances come from Young’s Appliance.

The modular drive-thrus are 349 square feet, typically sold for about $200,000, which Konczak says is one of the better alternatives to leasing or building space.

Franchisees can spend up to $300,000 building out leased space, money that’s lost if something doesn’t work out with the business. If something doesn’t work out for a shop with a BCubed facility, Konczak says, the building can simply be moved

“It’s far more secure to own the asset and be able to take it with you, versus losing all that money,” Konczak said. “They’re very appealing.”

Crystal Nelson can be reached at 989-358-5687 or cnelson@thealpenanews.com.