Today, those looking for the Demopolis KFC building on U.S. Highway 80 will be surprised to see an empty space.

Construction crews plan to bring the building, which is owned by Jack Marshall Foods Inc. of Tuscaloosa, completely down this morning to make room for a new facility.

Phillip Marshall, the company’s vice president of operations, said they plan to rebuild at the same location.

“We are going to build a new one,” Marshall said. “We are going to tear the old one down and put up a completely new building in the same location.”

The reason for the destruction of the old building was simple, Marshall said. They simply wanted to upgrade and modernize their facilities.

“We just wanted to put up a more modern building and a newer store to better serve the community,” Marshall said. “We just want to put together a store that can serve the people of Demopolis better.”

The store will be similar in size to the original. Marshall said they do not plan to offer a buffet as some of the larger stores do. The plan was to construct a building better suited to meet their customers growing demands.

The original plan, Marshall said, was to bring the building down Oct. 15. Marshall said things did not progress as quickly as they hoped prompting them to delay closing and demolition.

Current plans, Marshall said, call for KFC to reopen in late spring if things progress as planned.

“We would like to open up in late April or early May,” Marshall said. “But that all depends on how fast they can work and what the weather does. We will just have to see how things go.”