Plans for standalone restaurant at McDonald’s Wickliffe location in the works

Wickliffe Mayor Joe Sakacs has reported that a New York-based company has purchased the former McDonald’s in town in hopes of opening a standalone restaurant there.

“Finally, after all these years, they’re going to fix it up and hopefully sell it as something related to food or drinks,” Sakacs said, pointing out that it won’t become a chain.

The McDonald’s location at 28711 Euclid Avenue is a “problem,” Sakacs said.

“When they closed, one of the reasons I heard was that they had a McDonald’s up at Bishop Park,” he said. “When they closed, there was a property restriction, which meant that if the property was sold, there was no food or beverage. It would have to be for something else.”

Three years ago, McDonald’s was bought by CarRight, a Carvana-like chain.

“It had to happen for some reason,” Sakacs said. “They bought it at McDonald’s, went to the planning commission, got their approval and then something happened to the family.”

For this reason, the family ultimately decided to focus on the existing CarRight locations and not to open any new locations.

“It was emptied,” Sakacs said. “It was intended for fast-food restaurants – on the highways. Because of the property restrictions, no one was interested in the property.”

By calling the local real estate agency, Sakacs learned that there was a lot of interest in the property. However, when prospective buyers learned of the ownership restrictions, interest was lost.

“CarRight didn’t have to worry about the ownership restriction,” Sakacs said. “They were selling cars, so they didn’t care.”

After CarRight had difficulty selling the site due to the ownership restriction, Sakacs had several discussions with the McDonald’s team’s lawyers and was ultimately able to get them to agree to lift the restriction.

“This building was going to be auctioned,” Sakacs said. “In order to auction it and sell it, the real estate company wanted to see if the property restriction could be lifted. The lawyers agreed that they would lift it for a stand-alone restaurant.”

The site was successfully sold to the New York-based company at auction.

Sakacs predicts big changes in the city’s West End in the future, noting that this is one of the projects planned for that area of ​​Euclid Avenue.

“We need people, growth and jobs,” he said. “That’s how everything starts to change. That’s how demographics start to change.”

Sakacs plans to provide more information about the standalone restaurant at a later date.

“When you’re in this position, you realize there’s so much bureaucracy and everything is happening at a snail’s pace,” he said. “When the dotted line is signed, I’ll be much more specific about what’s going to happen.”

Originally published: August 10, 2024 at 6:00 am