The end of an era is in sight for the iconic McDonald’s restaurant located on the east end of Vancouver’s False Creek, just south of the Main Street Science World SkyTrain station.
Earlier this month, McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada sold its property at 1527 Main Street to an affiliate of Gray Real Estate Partners. The company is currently planning to create a mixed-use development with market-only rental housing on the site.
Although the majority of the restaurant chain’s locations are franchise-owned, this particular location, now 51 years old, is corporate-owned and operated.
The transaction amount was not disclosed. The deal was arranged by McDonald’s agent JLL Vancouver Capital Markets.
Brody Henriksen, executive vice president of JLL, said in an email to Daily Hive Urbanized that McDonald’s Canada is working to increase the number of high-density mixed-use developments in the neighborhood and the new St. Paul area. He said he felt the timing of the sale was appropriate given the increasing number of sales. Paul’s Hospital campus, just to the south, he plans to open in 2027.
The sale included a leaseback element that allowed the restaurant to continue operating until the project was ready for construction.
In addition, the restaurant will return to the site with a new “flagship” restaurant within the redevelopment’s ground-level commercial use.
McDonald’s Restaurant, 1527 Main Street, Vancouver. (Google Maps)
McDonald’s Restaurant, 1527 Main Street, Vancouver. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
McDonald’s Restaurant, 1527 Main Street, Vancouver. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
McDonald’s Restaurant, 1527 Main Street, Vancouver. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
McDonald’s Restaurant, 1527 Main Street, Vancouver. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
The new owners are already working on an application to the city government. The development is expected to include multiple towers.
As of July 2022, the 1.2-acre property was valued at $73,536,000, with $73,498,000 coming from the land and $38,300 from the two-story, 11,100-square-foot structure, according to BC Assessment. You can get it.
That’s up from an appraised value of $24.5 million in 2014, before the first major redevelopment project just to the south was completed.
McDonald’s has owned the restaurant since it was built in 1972. The last major renovation took place in time for the 2010 Winter Olympics, when the prime location was adjacent to the Olympic Village and McDonald’s was still a major sponsor of the Olympic movement. .
Even within Vancouver, this location is very distinctive for having a busy drive-through, which cannot be replicated in future redevelopments due to city ordinances that prohibit such features in new construction. Most of the site is currently used as a surface parking lot.
McDonald’s Restaurant, 1527 Main Street, Vancouver. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
McDonald’s Restaurant, 1527 Main Street, Vancouver. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
McDonald’s Restaurant, 1527 Main Street, Vancouver. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
McDonald’s Restaurant, 1527 Main Street, Vancouver. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
The project is expected to benefit from the state government’s new Transit Oriented Development (TOD) law. The law states that properties within a 400-meter radius of a SkyTrain station can be used as residential or mixed-use residential buildings with an allowable height of at least 20 stories. Use the. This restaurant’s location is well within the state-regulated inner radius of his TOD area of 800 meters.
Just south of 1695 Main Street, Onni Group redeveloped a similar long-established Burger King restaurant building in 2016 into Block 100 residential and retail redevelopment.
