Construction is underway on a long-delayed Peruvian chicken restaurant coming to an empty building at the northern edge of Hyattsville’s Arts District.

Suya’s Pollo a la Brasa, owned by Takoma Park resident Patrick Kamgang, was long planned to move into the former Jey’s Auto building at 5731 Baltimore Ave. in Riverdale Park, across from DeMatha Catholic High School.

But construction, which was on hold during the coronavirus pandemic, has been going on in earnest in recent days. Workers expect to finish by the end of the year.

A type of blackened rotisserie chicken, pollo a la brasa has become a trendy “cheap eat” in the Washington area in recent years, with Beltsville’s Sardi’s Chicken in particular attracting a lot of attention.

Latin American restaurants have also done well in the area, and the chicken place will be literally next door to Taqueria Los Perez.

Property owner Jey Edward of Silver Spring previously ran a gas station on the site. In 2008, he had the gas tanks removed and the soil remediated to allow it to be used for other purposes, but it sat vacant long enough that the town of Riverdale Park threatened to take it by eminent domain at one point.

In 2018, Edward cleaned up the property to attract new tenants..

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