HANCEVILLE — The intersection at College Drive and U.S. Highway 31 in Hanceville will soon look a lot livelier, thanks to the upcoming arrival of the newest addition to the city’s fast food scene.

The city will soon be home to a new-look Taco Bell restaurant, which will be erected on the site of the old Hardee’s on the east side of Highway 31. Hardee’s closed down almost two years ago, and the building has remained vacant ever since.

Vestavia-based Tacala, LLC, franchise operator for more than 280 Taco Bell restaurants throughout the Southeast, plans to tear down the old Hardee’s building and construct the new restaurant from the ground up. Mayor Kenneth Nail said Hanceville’s Taco Bell, along with another new location in the city of Clay, Alabama, will be the first in the state to adopt the chain’s new-look building design.

Although no work is being done at the site just yet, Nail said the new owner plans to move quickly once Tacala has obtained its building permit.

“They’re gonna move pretty quick,” he said. “I think they’re going to start teardown here in just in the next couple of weeks, and then, if everything goes according to their plans, we should have a new Taco Bell sometime in December.”

The restaurant adds to the slowly-growing mix of fast food offerings in the vicinity of Wallace State Community College, joining Jack’s, Dairy Queen, Pizza Hut, Domino’s, and McDonald’s, as well as locally-owned restaurants farther south along Highway 31 near the city’s downtown.

“I’ve thought for years that a Taco Bell would be a gold mine here,” said Nail. “The food’s affordable for all the people who are trying to save money and go to college at Wallace State, and the location is great. We’re really excited to welcome Taco Bell to Hanceville.”