DQ locating at new Umatilla Reservation retail center on 331

Published 8:14 pm Saturday, March 3, 2012

Dairy Queen is coming to a small retail center under construction on Highway 331 in the Coyote Business Park of the Combined Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.

Rochelle Ro Helfrecht of the reservation is managing the restaurant, which is expected to offer 20-30 full- and part-time jobs. Gwena Harris, for 19 years the owner of the Pendleton Dairy Queen, 1415 S.W. Court Ave., also owns the new restaurant.

Dairy Queen will be on the opposite end of the center from a Subway restaurant announced in January.

Perennial Investments is excited to include Dairy Queen in this project and is equally excited about the increasing interest in businesses locating on the reservation, said Carrie Burns, a spokesperson for Perennial Investments LLC, which is leasing Tribal land to build the retail center.

Both Dairy Queen and Subway are expected to open in late June or early July when construction on the 5,800-square-foot building is complete. A road being built by CTUIR crews will provide access to the retail center immediately east of Cayuse Technologies and north of the U.S. Forest Service building also under construction.

The Subway and Dairy Queen join a McDonalds restaurant already established in the Arrowhead Travel Plaza on the east side of Highway 331.

Harris and Helfrecht anticipate the store will be patronized by Forest Service, Davita and Cayuse Technologies employees who otherwise must cross the often busy highway to reach McDonalds.

I think a lot of employees will choose to stay on that (west) side of the highway until a traffic light goes up, Helfrecht said.

Hours of operation will be decided based primarily on demand.

Breakfast likely will start at 6:30 a.m. and the store could be open until 10 p.m. or later. Harris figures Dairy Queen will be open later on weekends for the casino and theater crowd, and longer, too, for special events like the July 4 Pow-Wow, car shows and golf tournaments.

This will be the first Dairy Queen on a Northwest Indian reservation, a source of pride for both Harris and Helfrecht.

This is a great opportunity for me, said Helfrecht, who moved to the Umatilla Indian Reservation as a 15-year old.

She said shes excited about managing the new store and has designs on one day owning her own Dairy Queen.

I like customer service and I love a challenge, she said.

Helfrecht is attending DQ School, a three-phase learning process that includes a 15-day training stint in Roseburg.

Harris has loads of confidence in her manager.

This business is challenging to me and I couldnt do it without Rochelle, Harris said. I know Rochelle is going to run it right or I wouldnt let her do it.