Quack Daddy Donuts expanding with franchised store

Quack Daddy Donuts, a customizable doughnut shop in the heart of Pendleton, will launch its first franchised store in a new commercial development in Westfield later this year.

Bryan Williams and Lisa DeLay opened the original Quack Daddy Donuts at 106 W. State St. in 2016. Since then, customers have invented hundreds of ways to dress-up Quack Daddy’s vanilla cake doughnuts with a selection of icing and topping combinations.

It’s a concept Andy Arrendale has been interested in since seeing a similar store in Florida seven years ago. Now he is Quack Daddy’s first franchisee and is working to open a new location in Westfield’s Spring Mill Grand Station by early August.

“I had always had aspirations of running a restaurant when I was younger, but when I brought it up to my wife, she said, ‘No way, not going to happen,'” Arrendale said. “She’s the sensible one in the relationship.”

But Arrendale didn’t give up on his dream.  After he found Quack Daddy and asked Williams and DeLay if they’d be interested in expanding, it took about a year of planning before they decided it was time to franchise.

Arrendale then spent two years scouting locations in Broad Ripple, Carmel and the neighborhoods surrounding Butler University before learning that the Spring Mill Grand Station development was going to be built a half-mile from his house in Westfield.

The idea of opening a store so close to home appealed to him. “We didn’t want to just be a spot on the side of the road,” Arrendale said.

John Perine, president of Aspen Property Management and Brokering, said construction on the Spring Mill Grand Station mixed-use development started last May.

The $6.5 million project near West 161st Street and Spring Mill Road is fronted by a 14,000-square-foot strip of eight retail storefronts, including a cornerstone space featuring a decorative clock tower .

“Even with the pandemic, we’ve seen really strong demand for the retail units,” Perine said.

In addition to Quack Daddy’s 1,600-square-foot space, Perine said he’s in the process of signing contracts with a barber shop, a nail salon and Joe’s Grill.

The property also features roughly 4,000-square-feet of offices and 18,000-square-feet of storage units.

“We also have a phase two building planned in the center of the project that will be a two-story, climate-controlled, self-storage building that’s about 40,000 square feet,” Perine said, adding that project will likely be completed in 2023.

In the meantime, Arrendale will open his Quack Daddy store, where he plans to experiment with expanded hours and will partner with Carmel-based Indy Coffee Roasters to provide coffee. He’d like to open other Quack Daddy’s after testing the concept in Westfield.

“Pendleton is a little bit different. It’s a small town, a destination location. Westfield is a little bit larger of a city,” Arrendale said. “Hopefully, we’ll open up more across the city, but we want to make sure the model works well here first.”