Famous for its no-frills, budget-priced dining, McDonald’s will spend nearly $3 million to bring a new upscale look to Vancouver.
The chain’s Mill Plain Boulevard restaurant is in the midst of a major face lift, with a price tag of nearly $1million, according to husband-and-wife franchise owners Matt and Val Hadwin of Vancouver-based North Star Restaurants Inc.
Set to be finished in February, the work will freshen up the building’s tired exterior, increase its drive-through lanes and add to the comfort level of interior dining with new furnishings and a state-of-the-art ordering system.
“Basically, we’re keeping the shell and the kitchen. It’s a total renovation,” said Matt Hadwin, who co-owns 15 regional McDonald’s stores, including a Vancouver restaurant that was destroyed by a July 28 fire.
That restaurant’s former site at Fort Vancouver Way and Fourth Plain Boulevard is slated for an early 2011 construction start on rebuilding the more than $2 million restaurant.
“That store will open at the end of April,” he said.
The restaurant originally opened in 1996. It went up in flames after a drive-through customer’s car fire spread.
Most of the cost will be covered by insurance, Hadwin said.
Long-term reinvestment
Renovation costs for the Mill Plain McDonald’s will be shared by the Hadwins’ company and by Oak Brook, Ill.-based McDonald’s Corp., as part of the parent company’s long-term reinvestment program, Hadwin said.
McDonald’s intent is to maintain brand success and relevance, he said.
The global fast-food retailer operates more than 32,000 restaurants in 117 countries. More than 75 percent of McDonald’s restaurants worldwide are owned and operated by independent local men and women.
As franchise owners, the Hadwins pay McDonald’s a percentage of sales.
“So for them, it’s a good investment,” he said.
North Star Restaurants Inc. has hired Portland-based contractor Joseph Hughes Construction to oversee the Mill Plain project. Upgrades will include:
• A second drive-through ordering lane.
• A new glass-tiled lobby with red accents.
• Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant rest rooms.
• Updated, cubed seating and new indoor play equipment.
North Star, which employs 630 people at its 14 restaurants and its Vancouver headquarters, expects to begin work on at least three other restaurants after completing the Mill Plain and Fourth Plain stores, Hadwin said.
There’s a renovation in the works for the company’s Battle Ground restaurant, along with a remodel of the McDonald’s inside the Walmart store near Mill Plain Boulevard and Interstate 205, and a complete tear-down and rebuilding of the North Star-owned Hazel Dell location at 7010 Highway 99.
