Caption: The renovated McDonald's new storefront
Photo submitted by Jair Wright
With the demand for companies to maintain a more modern image, the McDonald’s on West Pensacola Street recently was demolished and reconstructed to match the standards.
The restaurant has been closed to the public for over six months but is set to reopen by Monday.
Darryl Williams is a maintenance worker at the location and has been back on the job in recent weeks. “It was scheduled to be open on Oct. 20 and we were supposed to have a live DJ and balloons but obviously that date is long gone,” he said.
“It’s been a process but it should be up and running by Monday,” he added.
According to urbantallahassee.com, the value of the improvements was upward of $800,000. The location had undergone a complete rebuild in order to make the restaurant more efficient and up-to-date.
Its original structure proved to be problematic in some cases due to how easily it could become overcrowded when a backlog of cars entered the parking lot.
In the summer of 2017 the parking lot was the center stage of a melee involving several teens which resulted in the arrest of one teen.
The restaurant made adjustments to avoid chaos and give more accessibility to its customers. It added a new entrance to the parking lot of the plaza and created an additional drive-through in order to cater to the substantial number of customers that the restaurant serves every day.
There are more than 15 McDonald’s in Tallahassee but the location on West Pensacola Street in particular is one of the more popular locations in the city. It’s located within the University Village Shopping Center, which is also home to the United States Postal Service, Gold’s Gym, Hobbit American Grill, Play Sports Bar, and Bajas Beach Club.
Many people who attend events at Play Sports Bar and Bajas Beach Club would often go to the McDonald’s afterward to get food because it’s open 24 hours and is less than 100 feet away from the popular venues.
Michaela Dozier, a senior occupational therapy major, is looking forward to the restaurant reopening.
“I’m excited about it reopening because for the last couple of months I’ve been having to drive 10-15 minutes just to get some food after a late night at the club.”
With the restaurant projected to open next week it won’t be a surprise to see cars gearing toward the place.
“Man, this was long overdue; they been talking about renovating the building for years,” said Floyd Bostic, who worked at the location some years ago.