After years without any ice cream shops on Main Street, Andoverites will have a choice of frozen treat shops next summer.
Two new shops will be open, if all goes according to plans filed with the town’s zoning board. And those two shops will be within a stone’s throw of the Orange Leaf frozen yogurt store on Park Street, which during warm weather sees lines out the door.
Sweet Kiwi, a frozen yogurt chain based in Lowell, has just filed plans to open a shop at 77 Main St., where the dry cleaners House of Clean was located for years. LeBlanc’s Fine Wines was most recently there. The space has been vacant since LeBlanc’s closed earlier this year.
The Board of Appeals holds a public hearing on Sweet Kiwi’s application on Nov. 1 at 7 p.m. at the board’s meeting held on the second floor of Memorial Hall Library.
“I am excited about opening in Andover,” said Tuan Nguyen of Sweet Kiwi. “People will love our flavors.”
As for competition from two other similar businesses, Nguyen said he is not worried.
“Our product is different with our type of flavors,” he said. “I don’t worry. We’ll be sharing customers. Andover has lots of them.”
He hopes to open in March 2013, as the weather turns warmer.
Sweet Kiwi practically would be a next door neighbor to Mad Maggie’s ice cream. A parking lot would separate the two businesses. Mad Maggie’s has been going through the town’s permit process for the past month as the company filed for a fast food permit. Mad Maggie’s plan is to serve customers inside and at a window. Mad Maggie’s, which also has a store on Route 125 in North Andover, will be located on the first floor of the just-renovated Andover Village Square (formerly Olde Andover Village).
Sweet Kiwi offers 54 flavors. Family owned and operated, its first store opened in Lowell on Wood Street last June. The Andover location will be the fifth for the company. Sweet Kiwi is already located in Lowell, Chemsford and Methuen. Its Westford location is scheduled to open at the end of the month, Nguyen said. Manchester, N.H. and Martinsburg, West Virginia are future locations.
Business has been good for the company’s other shops and Nguyen said the company’s somewhat unusual flavors are the key.Taro flavor is popular at the Methuen store and so is cheesecake, he said.
