At last week’s North Michigan Park Civic Association (NMPCA) meeting, McDonald’s gave an update on plans for the restaurant located at 4950 South Dakota Avenue NE.

McDonald’s Presentation to NMPCA (February 2025).

The restaurant has new owners. The Gavignano family owns McDonald’s restaurants between Baltimore and Richmond. The McDonald’s on South Dakota Avenue was the 40th McDonald’s built in the entire country. It will be demolished in the coming weeks. ANC 5A previously circulated a pre-construction update.

One change from previous plans is that the new McDonald’s will be one story instead of two. Cars will enter and exit from South Dakota Avenue. There will be a dual drive-thru lane. A pedestrian walkway along Delafield will provide pedestrian access to the restaurant. They said that the rebuilding should not impact the Route 80 bus stop in front of the restaurant.

They are still working on a seating plan. Because of how the new restaurant will be designed, there will be fewer seats, roughly a maximum of 28 seats. They said they may have room to add two to four more. They said the seating will be more comfortable and also ADA-compliant. They are also looking at having smaller movable tables that they could put out during busy hours to add a bit more seating. They are doing a seating audit to look at how customers are currently using the indoor seating during different hours of the day.

The construction manager was not aware of permissible construction hours. They could not really answer questions about where their construction workers will park, but the new pastor of Faith United Church next door offered to talk with them about reaching an agreement to use the church’s parking lot.

In response to a question about pest control, they said that they are required to have a signed contract with a pest control company for the entirety of the project. They said they already have a contract in place and that they will be prepared to check and empty traps every day.

In response to a question from a resident who lives across the street from the restaurant, they said that the speakers will in fact face Delafield Street. But they said that residents should not be disturbed because there will be landscaping that can absorb the sound.

In response to a question about possible damage to homes, they said they do not expect having to use the large equipment that is used for drilling into rock. They do not expect there to be loud, disruptive banging that residents encounter with large construction projects. I imagine the civic association/ANC will circulate contact information for McDonald’s for residents to report issues/emergencies.

The team said they want to support community events and asked about how to get access to neighborhood email lists and such.

Timeline

They have an ambitious goal to reopen by August 11, 2025. That date is dependent on getting their raze permits soon. They said it will take about 90 days to clean, prep, and demo site, so they expect to pour footers for a new store around May 15. From there they expect about another 90 days to construct the new building.

ANC 5A Chair Emily Singer Lucio (5A03) was on the meeting and invited the team to attend a full ANC meeting.