Ten months after Black Rock Coffee Bar filed plans to throw its lightning bolt into Maricopa’s increasingly crowded coffee competition, the project is showing its first new sign of movement.

New city permits show the Oregon-based coffee chain is advancing plans for its future location near Edison Road at 20265 N. John Wayne Parkway.

The latest filing covers the shop’s exterior signage, including wall signs and a drive-thru menu board. While sign permits are a limited step, they mark forward movement for a project that had been quiet since InMaricopa first reported the planned coffee shop back in July.

The location puts Black Rock directly across John Wayne Parkway from Dutch Bros, setting up a drive-thru coffee rivalry between two Oregon-based chains competing for commuter traffic on Maricopa’s busiest corridor.

Black Rock’s Maricopa shop is planned as a 1,500-square-foot modular building with drive-thru and patio service on a roughly 1-acre pad between Sherwin-Williams and a future retail building, in front of Harbor Freight and Extra Space Storage.

The site was previously planned for eegee’s, the Tucson-based sandwich and frozen drink chain that announced a Maricopa location in 2022 but never moved forward.

The new documents do not list an opening date. A city development map lists the project as “in review,” putting it in line for Planning & Zoning Commission consideration before it could advance to City Council for final approval.