McDonald's At 2017 Main St.

[IntheKnowHouston]

11 hours ago, Houston19514 said:

If they took down all of the golden arches signs, especially that tall one,  I think it's a pretty safe bet the closure is permanent.  AFAIK, their practice is to keep those signs up when they rebuild a location.

Not necessarily. I've seen a few McDonald's appear permanently closed in my neighborhood, but were later rebuilt from the ground up.

[IntheKnowHouston]

In today's Houston Chronicle article regarding the sale of the Greyhound Bus property at 2121 Main St, there is mention of the McDonald's property at 2017 Main St.


"Sarem Soudagar, a franchisee who previously operated that McDonald’s location, said the restaurant had seen a dip in foot traffic post-COVID. His father, Rafiq Soudagar, also mentioned high levels of unhoused people present on the property generated additional challenges for the business. The two do not own the land itself, the son said, and the future of the site would be determined by McDonald’s.

A McDonald corporate spokesperson confirmed the restaurant closure but did not respond to request for comment about their plans for 0.77-acre parcel, which has an appraised value of $3 million."

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/real-estate/article/greyhound-mcdonalds-midtown-houston-skypark-pierce-17742026.php

 

[SpaceGhost]

I looked into the Automated White Settlement McDonald's, as I had seen the store it replaced, but was unsure who owned it. It was a McDonald's Express operating out of a Chevron station https://goo.gl/maps/LF8yKESgDPZXUewm8 In this case it was Chevron and later Tetco who owned that property. 7-Eleven seems to have been responsible for closing the store in 2017, and McDonald's purchased the site last year in preparation for the new store. Prior to this I had assumed that McDonald's owned this property as they did with most other Chevron co-locations. This does make the future a bit murkier, as I had figured McDonald's already owned the White Settlement land. To add to the oddness, a rather prominent McDonald's on Barton Springs Road has also closed in a similar circumstance.  https://goo.gl/maps/ovk3yBszmb3Wwks47 Google lists it a Temporarily Closed, and the McDonald's website still lists it as open, no one will comment what's going on there either. 

Finally, looking into the franchise owners, they've been with Mickey D's for a while, and have shut down at least one location (North Loop East at Maxwell) prior to this one. That location did seem to be replaced by a spot in the Pilot Truck stop on Maxwell. Most of their stores are in and around the Jacinto City area. They picked this one up in 2016, and shut it down about a month after taking over another in Pasadena.

[McD.land]

My team has the Greyhound site at 2121 Main listed on the market. Lease expires Oct 2024. We are meeting with McDonalds this week to discuss the site as it is definitely closed.  

[Amlaham]

16 minutes ago, McD.land said:

My team has the Greyhound site at 2121 Main listed on the market. Lease expires Oct 2024. We are meeting with McDonalds this week to discuss the site as it is definitely closed.  

Typically, do tenants leave months before their lease expires or is it usually right when the lease expires?

[McD.land]

5 minutes ago, Amlaham said:

Typically, do tenants leave months before their lease expires or is it usually right when the lease expires?

They should be out when the lease is up. And my understanding is they are willing to exit early. 

[Brooklyn173]

Any rumors in where Greyhound will go? There are intercity bus facilities in East Downtown. Would that work? You want an easily accessible bus terminal but not an eyesore. It's a delicate balance. You can't just put a bus terminal out in the prairie as some have hinted.  I sometimes take long haul buses, and you don't want to be dumped in a suburban strip mall. 

[McD.land]

Our understanding is that they are moving to a curbside concept, probably leasing a presence in several locations (maybe hotels) and not having a big terminal or station anymore....which is not financially effective for what they do.

[bookey23]

What does your team do?

[kennyc05]

I was shocked at how quickly that the big McDonalds pole sign came down.

[phillip_white]

1 hour ago, McD.land said:

Our understanding is that they are moving to a curbside concept, probably leasing a presence in several locations (maybe hotels) and not having a big terminal or station anymore....which is not financially effective for what they do.

This works great for Megabus. They rent a lot across from the Metro downtown bus terminal.

[wilcal]

14 minutes ago, phillip_white said:

This works great for Megabus. They rent a lot across from the Metro downtown bus terminal.

And FlixBus, who know owns Greyhound, does the same. 

Although I thought I read Megabus was moving?

[McD.land]

2 hours ago, bookey23 said:

What does your team do?

My team?  We are the listing brokers at Cushman Wakefield.

[phillip_white]

1 hour ago, wilcal said:

And FlixBus, who know owns Greyhound, does the same. 

Although I thought I read Megabus was moving?

I hadn't heard that, but it would be disappointing if true.

[Brooklyn173]

Megabus moved out of the parking lot near the Metro building almost a year ago, though they may still use the curb as a stop for some of their routes. Flix bus still uses a parking lot nearby on Gray but there are no facilities (ticket office, waiting room, etc).

From my experience in other cities, the curb works well for the bus company but transfers a lot of issues (litter, traffic, vagrancy, crime) to the neighborhood without any identifiable party in charge. That's why some cities prohibit curbside pickups.

[phillip_white]

3 hours ago, Brooklyn173 said:

Megabus moved out of the parking lot near the Metro building almost a year ago, though they may still use the curb as a stop for some of their routes. Flix bus still uses a parking lot nearby on Gray but there are no facilities (ticket office, waiting room, etc).

From my experience in other cities, the curb works well for the bus company but transfers a lot of issues (litter, traffic, vagrancy, crime) to the neighborhood without any identifiable party in charge. That's why some cities prohibit curbside pickups.

Wow, you're right. They moved the downtown location to the Hillcroft Park & Ride lot. This effectively removes this as a convenient option for me, although I haven't used the service since 2019 due to covid.

[McD.land]

MCDONALD'S is working on permits to take the building down asap.  

[hindesky]

[phillip_white]

[NB_Brendan]

On 1/5/2023 at 4:16 PM, Amlaham said:

For those likes me, I'm definitely most excited about not having to see a giant M driving down the freeway :) Our Skyline just got more beautiful :)

For those that don't understand my view, these giant Ms on a stick are sooo FUGLY. These and the Starbucks ones 🤢. I'm sooo glad Houston took the steps to prevent these types of sticks to appear along our freeways. 

 

 

Hey, those golden arches are comedic relief when going down 45. 

[rechlin]

This is now gone.  Photo thanks to u/mborbey on reddit:

 

[HoustonMidtown]

https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/midtown-mcdonalds-demolished/285-007e3f45-bf59-445f-89ae-05198d544fc1

 

[Triton]

Just trying to make sure I'm reading this correctly but it sounds like McDonald's is gone for good in this area right? And that Houston First plans to build some under the bridge park here first with the Piece Elevated eventually becoming a skywalk? 

[004n063]

6 minutes ago, Triton said:

Just trying to make sure I'm reading this correctly but it sounds like McDonald's is gone for good in this area right? And that Houston First plans to build some under the bridge park here first with the Piece Elevated eventually becoming a skywalk? 

The McDonald's has been demolished.

Barring radical changes to the NHHIP, the segment of I-45 to the west and south of Downtown will cease to operate as a highway when the project is completed.

Everything else, at this point, is just ideas that have a gotten some degree of publicity, public support, and enough funding to draft into detailed-ish plans and pay for renders.