Bricktown McDonalds proposal not welcomed

[John]

If they want on the south side of Reno, why don't they just park the McD's in the parking lot right by Reno? No Bricktown jurisdiction, just gotta go through URC. Bass pro doesn't use that much of it's parking lot, just freeloaders who park there illegaly.

[okclee]

Why doesn't the Bricktown design committee oversee the entire area between I-235, I-40, Gaylord, and Main Street??

[BailJumper]

The chain restaurants are the worst culprits because as the real estate rep pointed out, they are publicly held enterprises and by far their biggest motivation is profit.

Yeah, you're right. All the local mom and pop businesses in Bricktown are in it for the shear joy of overly inflated overhead, long hours, few customers and debt, debt, debt.

Personally, I'd welcome an upscale McD's. We love the BT Sonic location and eat there often. As long as the McD's is on a corner I say let them have a drive through.

You see McD's in Times Square, airports and everywhere else, why not BT?

[HOT ROD]

but McD does nt have a drive thru in Times Square or airports neither.

McD can adopt an urban design here,

However, I agree that a small drive-thru is appropriate for that location, it should just be an urban (multilevel) design with a smaller footprint (and little if any parking)..

[CCOKC]

I agree totally. McDonald's has adapted their stores all over the world. I agree with the decision of the Bricktown planning board and do hope they stick to their guns on this one and any other proposed project in Bricktown. If anybody was in Bricktown last night you would see that a drive thru would definitely been a huge nightmare as far as traffic control goes.

[John]

If we were ever to allow a drive-thru to locate in Bricktown proper, it better be a In-N-Out.

(I know we're out of their territory...)

That's the only exception.

[Karried]

Why did you have to say that word! I absolutely love In and Out.. I used to drive 25 min in CA for those burgers and fresh cut fries.. omg.. I have honestly never had a burger that I loved more than In and Out.. the lines were always Out the door too.. I always thought a franchise here would go over so well!

[BDP]

No Bricktown jurisdiction, just gotta go through URC

Actually, they would probably have to make it cheaper looking to get approved by URC. They like it cheap. The cheaper the better.

BTW, I have no problem with a McD's in the district (although it is boring and nothing new for the city), I just think this proposal shows how far off Bass Pro and lower Bricktown were/are from generating any kind of "urban destination" or district. They are inspiring the exact opposite.

[okclee]

I thought I heard about an In-OUt Burger coming soon to San Antonio.

[okclee]

I agree with BDP on this, I really don't care anymore about Bricktown and the direction it is headed. So go ahead with the McD and the Wal-Mart Supercenter, put them in between the Bass Pro and the IHOP.

[Architect2010]

Ok, no. I do care about wat happens to UpperBricktown, because putting a McD's or a walmart between bass pro and ihop would be in Upper Bricktown, and that would ruin it, now what i think BDP was saying is that Lower Bricktown has a negative affect not upper Bricktown, and if they put a walmart or McD's in lower bricktown that would be expected from the quality of things they put in lb.. yeah im confusing myself.

[Midtowner]

If Sonic, with its corporate HQ in Bricktown can't do a drive in, neither can McDonald's. I'm not too worried.

[okclee]

What was the last thing to happen in UpperBricktown?? Yes finally a Hampton Inn is being built, Woopdeedoo.

Lower Bricktown is nearly complete and UpperBricktown just sits there with lease signs everywhere, multiple restaurants close regularly, with how many vacant buildings and even a vacant lot right on the canal.

To me Bricktown, both Lower and Upper have lost their mark along the way. So bring on McD's, Wal-Mart, Chillis, Cracker Barrell, Starbucks, and whoever else wants in.

[metro]

actually okclee, Lower Bricktown still has lots of ways to go, far more than Upper Bricktown will, simply due to its size. There is still plenty of surface parking that can be converted as well as tons of space will open up south of the current I-40. Not to mention, many on here believe that Hogan's current projects will eventually be replaced once this happens and the infill is developed properly.

[okclee]

I disagree that LB has more to go then UB does. I agree that the size of LB is greater than UB but at the rate of development LB will be completed and UB will still look the same mainly along the canal.

Upper Bricktown still has all of the steel mill property (east on Sheridan) that to me looks worse than the parking lots of Lower Bricktown. And the vacant canal lot that has set for many years now along with boarded up buildings and undeveloped canal level areas.

The property owners along the UB canal will wait it all out for the BIG payday, While LB continues to develop. Not to mention the restrictions for LB are far less and more inviting to anyone that wishes to be in one of the two.

[Oh GAWD the Smell!]

Sure...Put one down there.

Stick that sucker right inside Bass Pro and muck up their sign with those golden arches.

[metro]

The Steel Mill already has plans proposed, it just won't start until after the "Hill at Bricktown" (even though it's in Deep Deuce really) is finished. Unfortunately the guy who owns it wants to see how successful the Hill turns out. I've seen the master plans for the site, its going to be residential and mixed use retail.

[Doug Loudenback]

Personally, I'm pleased by the stance taken by the Bricktown "monitors" ... and, actually, the arrogant stance taken by McDonalds ... I personally hope that "McDonalds" does "not come back to the table." See Steve Lackmeyer's article at NewsOK: Fast food chain may change its plans ...

Fast food chain may change its plans
By Steve Lackmeyer
The Oklahoman

For decades McDonald's used a clown as the company's mouthpiece. Maybe the company should have reconsidered that strategy last week.

As a company, McDonald's is among the most recognizable brands in the world, with more than 30,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries. Its friendly messages are beamed to millions of consumers via television, print advertisements, billboards and radio spots.

So maybe it shouldn't have been a surprise when asked to communicate about the company's desire to open a restaurant in Bricktown, McDonald's released the following statement from John Wendel, director of development at McDonald's greater southwest region:

"At McDonald's, we are committed to the communities in which we operate and we are extremely interested in having a location in The Bricktown area in Oklahoma City. McDonald's embraces the communities we do business in and looks forward to making this a mutually beneficial solution. As always, McDonald's wants to be a good neighbor no matter where we are.”

That's mighty friendly. But at last week's Bricktown Urban Design Committee meeting, the company communicated a different message with a different tone:

McDonald's liked the new design recently used in suburban Mustang — and featured in a national advertising campaign, and wants to use the same approach in Bricktown, a historic urban warehouse district. McDonald's desire to have a drive-through, and to orient the restaurant's design for vehicular traffic are more important than Bricktown's desire to maintain and expand its unique status as the most successful pedestrian-oriented commercial district in the state.

Company representatives lectured the Bricktown Urban Design Committee on how to do its job, and questioned whether the committee really had any authority over how McDonald's should design a store. And when they were reminded this committee did have authority, and it became clear the McDonald's design wasn't going to pass, the representatives again insisted that east Bricktown is not meant for pedestrians and won't be anytime soon.

Compromises were offered by committee members. They agreed to continue consideration until the next meeting, a gesture that was met with: "I do not expect to be back.”

Ben Aguirre, the fast food giant's area construction manager, and Kris Fullerton, area real estate manager, left the meeting and insisted that only McDonald's corporate public relations staff could answer any further questions.

I contacted the PR folks and asked if McDonald's would continue pursuing a spot in Bricktown. I inquired about McDonald's track record of custom designing restaurants in historic districts. I asked if McDonald's considers Bricktown to be a historic district. I noted that, contrary to Aguirre's stance that the Bricktown design was "unique,” it was almost identical to a restaurant recently opened in Mustang and inquired why the company couldn't tailor a restaurant specifically for Bricktown. Finally, I also wanted to know what is more important to McDonald's, stockholder expectations or community expectations?

McDonald's is standing with Wendel's friendly, happy statement. Nothing more.

I do not expect to be back. Right. Like a McDonalds restaurant is akin to a Boeing, Piper, whaterver, "real deal" contribution to Okc? It almost sounds like McDonalds thinks that it's a "threat" to Okc for it NOT to have a McDonalds in Bricktown. Can you say,"I'm dying laughing?" :woohoo

And, if that perspective I've implied from McDonalds is accurate, it's wholly laughable (as though a city having a (ANY) fast-food restaurant would have such a city-wide-imact-potential). Hell, if ALL McDonalds withdrew from Okc (and that's a bunch), would we get over it?¦nbsp; (Yes, for fatty food and cholseteral intake lovers ...and even though I do LOVE my Egg-McMufins and Hash Browns.)

But, as far as I'm able to tell, having a "McDonalds" in a US city has NEVER been a benchmark of ANY US city!¦nbsp; I mean, do you find ANYTHING ANYWHERE which indicates that the presence of a McDonalds makes a city "great?"¦nbsp; What a joke, if you've found such a thing!

I mean, when it comes down to having or not having a McDonalds in Bricktown, there is nothing to gain (but for those who are compelled to have a Big Mac Attack from time to time) and, actually much to lose. McDonald's is 999% mundane, even though I do enjoy my EggMcMuffins. But, WHY would ANYONE want to do the "mundane" in Bricktown?

Not me, for sure. I can get my EggMcMuffins EVERYWHERE and don't want to go to Bricktown to enjoy my high-cholerstoral breakfast (fast-food-oh-you-don't-have-time-to-go-somewhere-else) fix for the morning hours. As for burgers, well, other locales in Bricktown do a much better job. And, should McDonalds wish to become "punivitive" (they won't -- too many sales in Okc for that to happen), it wouldn't hurt our bodies one iota, much the contrary!

Synopisis: Nothing to be gained, something to be lost. Nuke (trash)-em! Even McDonalds Co. would be hard-pressed to imagine in their wildest dreams how they could possible make a "historic" contribution in this turn, and they seem to have no interest in doing so. Now, if they'd rig their site to do that, I might see it differently. But, as for now ...

... Doug Dawg says, "Good riddance! I hope that they don't come back to the table. And, if they do, that they will be humble and will opt in to the 'pedestrian' and not 'drive through' model."

[AFCM]

Exactly. If I wanted to commit suicide by gluttony, I'll do so at Falcone's or Hooters.

[metro]

I'd welcome a Bricktown/urban McDonalds if it was urban designed, had no surface parking (unless it was street parking) and offered this type of delivery. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like this concept will make it to the US anytime soon.




From São Paulo to Shanghai, McDonald's is boosting growth with speedy delivery.

By BusinessWeek
Mickey D delivers? You bet. While Americans suffering from a Big Mac attack typically pull up to the drive-through window, in the developing world the fast-food chain increasingly does the driving.

In traffic-choked cities from Manila to Montevideo, McDonald's deploys fleets of motor scooters to get hot food to customers fast. "I'm too lazy to go out and stand in line," confesses Nada Abou el Soud, a Cairo high school student. She says she calls in an order for a McChicken combo meal at least once a week, dropping about $4.25 each time, including a delivery fee of 70 cents.

All told, McDonald's (MCD, news, msgs) delivers in some 25 cities, with a half-dozen more on deck. The company just launched deliveries in Taipei with 1,000 drivers, is expanding Shanghai to citywide service this summer, and is testing the concept in Beirut and Riyadh. In Egypt, where the setup was pioneered in 1995, deliveries now account for 27% of all McDonald's revenue and up to 80% at some restaurants.

Video: McDonald's markets to moms

Globally, delivery sales are expected to total more than $110 million in 2007, up from $90 million last year, the company says. While that's spare change for the $21.6 billion giant, the business is growing by 20% to 30% annually, more than triple the chain's overall rate.

It's profitable, too.

Delivery margins usually top the 13% to 14% that McDonald's outlets generally yield. That's because the courier fee, which runs from 50 cents to $1, covers the cost of handling phoned-in orders and the fleets of drivers and motorbikes. "And we don't even have to clean up a table," notes Timothy J. Fenton, president of McDonald's operations outside the Americas and Europe. "It's incremental profit for us."

Experimentation is encouraged
The business is emblematic of the change in thinking at the Oak Brook, Ill., company. From McDonald's start in 1955, headquarters dictated pretty much every detail of running a franchise. But as revenue growth stalled several years ago, management began encouraging experimentation. So while the basic menu and layout of a McDonald's is still pretty much the same everywhere, restaurants in China now have latitude to substitute corn for fries in Happy Meals, some in the U.S. blend fruit smoothies and those in Australia and France have coffee lounges that feel like a Starbucks (SBUX, news, msgs).

"Management is looking beyond Oak Brook for inspiration," says UBS Securities analyst David S. Palmer. "They're becoming better at sharing the best ideas around the globe."

McDonald's opened its first location in Egypt in 1994. Its local licensee quickly suggested adding delivery after noticing that other fast-food chains, and even five-star hotels, offered the service. The first trial took place six months later at two outlets.

One key was setting up a call center with a single toll-free phone number for metropolitan Cairo. The other was hiring hundreds of scooter drivers to snake their way through the city's thick traffic to make their drop-offs before the McNuggets get cold.

Today, almost all of McDonald's 35 restaurants in and around Cairo deliver, while only a couple have drive-through windows. McDonald's has mimicked this setup as it has expanded the service to other countries.

One place, though, that the Golden Arches won't come knocking is the U.S. The delivery model works well in congested cities where there's no affordable space for drive-through windows, but plenty of cheap labor to ferry the food to customers. Except in Manhattan, where a handful of McDonald's deliver phoned-in orders to nearby high-rises, land isn't an issue in U.S. cities and people find it easier to pick up meals themselves. But with ever more sales coming from abroad, Ronald McDonald will be plenty busy making the rounds for some time.

This article was reported and written by Michael Arndt for BusinessWeek.

[metro]

Bricktown is lovin' redesigned McDonald's restaurant plans

By Steve Lackmeyer
Business Writer

McDonald's got high praise at the Bricktown Urban Design Committee on Wednesday for a redesigned restaurant proposed for the east end of the entertainment district.

Committee members unanimously approved the conceptual design, which proposes a restaurant at the corner of Reno and Byers with a red brick and cast stone facade. The design is dramatically different from one proposed in July, which matched several suburban restaurants and was oriented to automotive and not pedestrian traffic.

Committee member Bob Bright, a critic of the first designs, applauded the redesign by Trinity Group Architects.

"I'm not opposed to McDonald's coming into Bricktown,” Bright told company representatives. "But you had a standard facility, and this isn't a standard facility. I like very much what you have done.”

Ben Aguirre, the fast-food giant's area construction manager, and Kris Fullerton, area real estate manager, told the committee they were eager to work with the city to ensure the restaurant would be "special” and would fit into the entertainment district.

"We wanted to accommodate some of the requests that were made, especially the heavy focus on pedestrian aspects of the design and making the building closer to the corner,” Aguirre said. "As part of the pedestrian design motif, we've incorporated a lot of landscaping into the parking areas.”

The design proposed in July matched several suburban restaurants, including one near Mustang and also featured in a national advertising campaign.

The tone of Wednesday's meeting was markedly different than the last meeting in July, in which Aguirre and Fullerton questioned the committee's authority over the designs and insisted the fast food giant's proposed design was appropriate for the historic warehouse district.

The committee, consisting of members appointed by the mayor, is charged with overseeing new construction and facade renovations and ensuring they fit into the district's historic character.

Aguirre and Fullerton pledged Wednesday to work with the committee on landscaping and final designs, which must still be approved before a building permit can be issued by the city.

Details still to be addressed include building height, window designs and planting materials. Bright challenged Aguirre and Fullerton to take the same extraordinary approach to landscaping that they did with the building's conceptual design.

"I'd like to see you do a much better job with this location,” Bright said. "I'd like to see trees along Reno so it doesn't hide the parking but subdues it. Maybe there can be trees in the parking lot itself.”

Committee member John Yoeckel said the McDonald's redesign proves the city can and should expect a higher standard.

"You listened to us and came back to us with something that reflected the comments we made,” Yoeckel said. "I don't think it was that hard to do. ... We take pride in our community, and we are interested in seeing better planning and design, and thank you for working with us to do that.”

Committee chairman Tom Wilson said the willingness by McDonald's to work with the committee and respond to its concerns sets a good precedent to other applicants as Bricktown continues to attract national retailers.

"I think this was an excellent example of what our role on this committee should be,” Wilson said. We should be setting the parameter of how a building should be design in Bricktown. ... I hope this is a model for not just Bricktown but also other parts of the city.”



This rendering shows redesigned plans for a McDonald's restaurant in Bricktown. Provided by Trinity Group Architects

[betts]

Although I can say with quite a bit of certainty that I will never got to McDonalds in Bricktown, and I'm not a huge proponent of having one there, at least they got them to change the design and eliminate parking in front of the store. It should send a pretty clear message to the Committee that they need to stand their ground on design, and not worry about a business getting away if they're not lenient. If a business wants to be there badly enough, they will comply with architectural restrictions.

[metro]

The pic is hard to see, but it still looks suburban to me.

[betts]

I agree that it looks more suburban than urban, but it still looks better than what they had planned originally. I didn't see any mention of a drive-through in that article, and wasn't sure if you could see on in the back on that picture. It would be nice if that were eliminated too.

[Midtowner]

It looks like an Applebee's.