Scooter’s Coffee is lining up another Waco-area stop, and this one comes with a past. The planned Scooter’s Coffee Waco location at 1700 W. Waco Drive will bring a drive-thru coffee shop to a property that once served drive-through banking customers.
The 1,253-square-foot shop will occupy part of an older commercial building undergoing redevelopment. For drivers near Waco Drive and 17th Street, it promises a new coffee-run option at an address with more than six decades of business history.
The connection is a fitting one. Scooter’s built its identity around getting customers their drinks without a long stop. This Waco corner understood the appeal of doing business from the driver’s seat long before the coffee brand existed.
From Banking to Electronics to Coffee
An earlier commercial listing describes the property as a former bank constructed in 1963, with existing drive-through infrastructure. It places the building at the signalized corner of West Waco Drive and 17th Street.
Later, the address became home to L&M Wholesale Electronics. The company’s Better Business Bureau profile lists 1700 W. Waco Drive and a business file dating to 1993. That electronics chapter gives longtime residents another way to recognize the property.
Now Scooter’s is preparing a different kind of everyday transaction. The historic drive-through and the planned coffee service make an interesting connection, although the available records do not establish whether the original teller lanes or window will remain in use.
The shared idea is convenience. The new business will serve a different purpose, but customers pulling up for coffee will echo an older use of the same property.
An Older Building Gets Ready for New Tenants
The transition began before the coffee-shop filing. A state project registered in January 2024 called for remodeling 12,162 square feet into unfinished spaces for future retail and restaurant tenants. That broader project carried a $1 million estimated construction cost.
Current leasing material names Scooter’s Coffee and Spin Xpress as co-tenants at the property. It provides another public confirmation of the coffee plans beyond the new state filing.
The supplied rendering shows the wider redevelopment, with a refreshed commercial façade, multiple entrances and parking. It does not identify a finished Scooter’s storefront, so it illustrates the property’s planned appearance rather than the coffee shop’s final design.
A Different Fit for Scooter’s Coffee Waco
This location will use space inside the redeveloped building instead of a small, freestanding kiosk on a new pad. At 1,253 square feet, the planned shop also has a larger footprint than the brand’s traditional kiosk.
Scooter’s own franchise model information lists a 664-square-foot kiosk and a larger endcap option ranging from 800 to 1,400 square feet. An endcap occupies the end of a row of commercial spaces.
The Waco Drive filing falls within that larger size range. However, the record describes a tenant interior alteration, not a detailed final layout. What it clearly establishes is a drive-thru coffee business adapting existing commercial space.
A Brand Built to Scoot In and Out
Scooter’s started in Bellevue, Nebraska, in 1998, when Don and Linda Eckles opened their first drive-thru coffeehouse. The company’s history describes a concept centered on quality drinks, friendly service and speed.
The original name was Scooter’s Java Express. “Scooter’s” fit the founders’ goal of helping customers scoot in and scoot out quickly. That simple idea still explains the brand more clearly than any store-count milestone.
Even the smiley stickers on its cups have an origin story. Linda began adding happy-face stickers to drinks in 1998 as a small personal touch for customers. The company kept the practice as it grew.
Those details make the Waco Drive pairing feel particularly apt: a coffee business created around quick service is moving into a property with its own history of drive-through convenience.
Caramel, Cold Brew and a New Waco Stop
The current menu gives coffee drinkers several directions to go. Scooter’s calls Caramelicious its signature drink, while espresso drinks, cold brew and blended beverages offer other ways to make a coffee stop.
Smoothies, energy drinks and breakfast items broaden the choices. For someone passing along Waco Drive, the appeal is an order that fits into the trip already underway. The new location’s exact opening menu and hours have not been announced.
Scooter’s already has a local connection through China Spring. The Greater Waco Chamber held a September 2025 grand-opening ribbon cutting for the shop at 9516 China Spring Highway. The Waco Drive project builds on that area presence.
When Will Scooter’s Coffee Waco Open on Waco Drive?
The new construction filing lists work from December 28, 2026, through May 10, 2027. Its estimated construction cost is $650,000, covering the coffee-shop alteration rather than the entire property redevelopment or total franchise investment.
Fairgrounds Ventures II LP appears as the owner on both the earlier redevelopment and the Scooter’s filing. ArcVision is the design firm for the coffee shop.
May 10 is an estimated construction-completion date, not a confirmed opening day. For now, the next chapter is taking shape: a former bank and electronics address preparing to become part of Waco’s daily coffee routine.