The McDonald's Restaurant on Business 54 South in Fulton closed on Saturday afternoon to prepare for demolition of the current building on Wednesday.
A new McDonald's Restaurant will be built on the site this spring and planned to reopen in July.
Jim Baumgartner owns the Fulton McDonald's franchise along with other McDonald's in Jefferson City, Holts Summit and Lake of the Ozarks. He said on Monday and Tuesday usable equipment, furnishings and stock in the Fulton restaurant will be moved to other McDonald's restaurants the firm owns in Central Missouri.
Baumgartner said demolition of the Fulton McDonald's is expected to start Wednesday and take two days to complete. The lot then will be leveled and a larger 9,700 square-foot wheat-colored building with a dryvit finish will be constructed on the site.
The building will be moved north on the lot about 85 feet. "The south side of the new store will be about the location of the north side of the current building," Baumgartner said.
"We hope to have the new building completed by July 1. That's our planned date for reopening the restaurant," Baumgartner said.
The restaurant was targeted to be demolished because the McDonald's corporation did not want to share renovation costs on a 40-year-old building. Baumgartner said he and the McDonald's corporation will share the expense of constructing the new building but he must shoulder most of the total cost of the entire project, including all of the cost of equipment, uniforms, furnishings and signage. "When it is complete, McDonald's still will own the building," Baumgartner said.
The new building will not have a playland for youngsters. "McDonald's no longer allows us to install that type of playground in restaurants. We will have a small addition on the front where we will have video games for the kids to play. After the building is constructed, we may eliminate some table space in order to create a small kiddyland area where young children can play," Baumgartner said.
Construction of a new building, he said, should attract more customers to the store.
"The rebuilding plan was tried first by McDonald's in France and other European countries. Then they took it to Australia and now it is being rolled out in the United States. It has been very successful in attracting new business everywhere when old McDonald's buildings have been demolished and replaced with a new ones," Baumgartner said.