New McDonald's to be constructed

A McDonald's employee hands a customer his change at the restaurant's drive-thru during lunch Wednesday. The current restaurant will close July 1 and be torn down to make way for a new, improved store. The new restaurant should open sometime in early September. (Jason E. Silvers/Tribune)

Safety and efficiency will be among the goals for a new McDonald's restaurant, expected to be built in the coming months and open by early September.

Starting July 1, the local fast-food restaurant located at 2224 S. Main St., will close and be torn down to make way for a new, bigger store that will be built at approximately the same location. The current restaurant is located at the corner of U.S. Highway 69 and 23rd Street.

"The (new) McDonald's will be opening the first week of September," said Mark McCoy, owner and operator of the Fort Scott and Nevada, Mo., McDonald's franchises. "The current store will be completely torn down and we will build a new store on the same site incorporating the vacant lot just north of the restaurant. It will move a little bit north and be centered between the two lots."

The one item that will remain, even with the new store, is the golden arches, seen here at 2224 S. Main St.(Jason E. Silvers/Tribune)

McCoy said the new restaurant will feature the new style of McDonald's outside buildings, which includes a double drive-through lane.

The project to tear down the old building, which is more than 30 years old, and construct a new restaurant is similar to one involving the Nevada, Mo., store in 2008.

McCoy said the Nevada restaurant, which had previously faced north and south, now faces east and west. The new Fort Scott store will continue to face east and west.

The project will involve the addition of another driveway to the restaurant on U.S. 69. McDonald's has entered into an agreement with First Interstate Inn, located at 2222 S. Main, just north of McDonald's, for a redesigned driveway between the hotel property and McDonald's property, McCoy said.

Workers will also add a new sidewalk in front of the restaurant. The driveway entrance on 23rd Street will be moved to line up with the driveway at Citizens Bank, located at the corner of 23rd Street and U.S. 69, and The Tannery, located on 23rd Street near McDonald's, to improve that intersection area, McCoy said.

"It's a combination of efficiency and safety," he said. "It will make it (easier) for vehicles to make left turns on 23rd Street and 69 (highway)."

The project ties into proposed improvements to the intersection of U.S. 69 and 23rd Street slated to begin next year to help alleviate traffic incidents in that area.

An additional turn lane will be created on 23rd Street and existing turn lanes at the intersection of 23rd Street and U.S. 69 will be improved, McCoy said.

Many of the restaurant's employees will work at the Nevada location while the new store is being built and the company plans to help those employees commute back and forth to work each day. McCoy said he will need a total of 75 people to staff the new restaurant when it opens.

A variety of grand opening festivities are planned when the new restaurant opens in early September, including "lots of specials the first month," McCoy said.

"We want to welcome people back," he said.

Equipment in the new building will be "much more energy efficient," McCoy said. LED lights will replace all of the lighting systems in the current restaurant.

McCoy said an auction to sell all the equipment and fixtures in the current building -- including four heating, ventilation and air-conditioning units, an ice cream machine, seating, decor and tables, ovens, grills and fryers -- is planned for 10 a.m. Monday, July 2, at the restaurant.

Perhaps McDonald's most recognizable feature -- the golden arches -- will remain and be placed in front of the new restaurant, McCoy said.