Eastvale Taco Bell to Replace Shuttered Fatburger at Busy Hamner Ave Site

A long-vacant drive-thru restaurant on Hamner Avenue in Eastvale is set to become a Taco Bell, according to construction documents that reveal a tenant improvement project at 3828 Hamner Ave. The building previously housed a Fatburger & Buffalo's Express location before it closed, leaving behind a drive-thru lane and kitchen infrastructure for the new project.

The plans, first reported by WhatNow, show the franchisee behind the project is Diversified Restaurant Group, which the outlet reports operates 341 Taco Bell restaurants and 26 Arby's locations across five states, employing roughly 9,122 people. Sierra Burk, a representative for the company, said Diversified Restaurant Group is excited about the opportunity but told the outlet the company is not yet able to share further location details. The project consultant on the site plan is listed as Globeateliê, with Dialectic serving as MEP engineer and Kathryn Culley-Rapata as architect.

What's Changing at the Former Fatburger Site

According to the construction documents cited by WhatNow, the renovated restaurant will span approximately 2,743 square feet, up from the 2,240-square-foot footprint the building carried as a second-generation fast-food site, per listing details from TenantBase. The layout calls for a kitchen area of 799 square feet, a dining area of roughly 1,083 square feet, dry storage at 59 square feet, restrooms totaling 476 square feet, and a 96-square-foot ordering space, with the finished restaurant carrying a planned occupant load of 96 people.

The scope of work outlined in the filings includes new signage, new drive-thru equipment, new dining-room wall finishes, new furniture and fixtures, and minor back-of-house equipment adjustments. Neither a construction start date nor a bid or site-walk date has been set, the documents indicate.

Why This Corner of Eastvale Made the Cut

The property sits near the interchange of State Route 60 and Interstate 15, a junction that carries a combined daily traffic volume of roughly 374,476 vehicles, according to leasing documentation from Progressive Real Estate Partners, which is listed as the landlord on the project. That kind of vehicle exposure is often a key driver in quick-service site selection along Inland Empire freeway corridors, the leasing materials note. The site also sits adjacent to Ontario Ranch, a large master-planned community across the San Bernardino County line that is projected to add thousands of new homes, schools, and parks to the surrounding trade area.

Eastvale itself has grown quickly since incorporating as a city in October 2010, transforming from a former dairy-farming community into a suburb of more than 70,000 residents with a median household income exceeding $160,000, per 2024–2026 U.S. Census estimates cited by Paper Trail Politics. TenantBase's analysis further estimates that the area within a 15-minute drive of the Hamner Avenue site supports a daytime population of 203,756 people, a figure largely sustained by the warehouse and logistics facilities that have expanded across the Inland Empire.

A Franchisee Known for Reworking Drive-Thru Formats

Diversified Restaurant Group has a track record of reshaping how Taco Bell locations use drive-thru space. The company opened the brand's first-ever drive-thru Cantina concept in Danville, California, in 2021, and followed that in 2022 with Nevada's first Go Mobile dual-drive-thru layout, a format that shrinks dining rooms in favor of dedicated digital-pickup lanes, according to reporting from CoStar. The company, affiliated with real estate investment firm AC Ventures and led by CEO SG Ellison and Chairman David R. Grieve, has previously brought similarly reimagined Taco Bell concepts to California, including a cinema-themed San Jose Cantina that launched with a free food giveaway in 2023.

California's labor cost picture has shifted. Assembly Bill 1228 became operative on January 1, 2024, while its $20-per-hour minimum wage for fast-food workers at chains with more than 60 locations began April 1, 2024, according to the state's Department of Financial Protection and Innovation. Operators like Diversified Restaurant Group have developed higher-volume drive-thru setups and digital ordering formats.

For now, no construction start date or bid walk-through has been scheduled, and the franchisee has not confirmed additional details beyond what appears in the filings. Eastvale residents driving past the shuttered Fatburger sign on Hamner Avenue will likely have to wait for permits and construction to move forward before the new Taco Bell takes shape.