McDonald's at Main Street SkyTrain to be redeveloped into rental housing

Iconic McDonald's next to Main Street SkyTrain sold for redevelopment into rental housing

McDonald's restaurant at 1527 Main Street, Vancouver. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

The end of an era is in sight for the iconic McDonald’s restaurant location just south of SkyTrain Main Street-Science World Station at the eastern end of False Creek in Vancouver.

Earlier this month, McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada sold its property at 1527 Main Street to an affiliate of Grey Real Estate Partners, which now has plans to achieve a mixed-use development on the site with secured purpose-built market rental housing.

While the vast majority of the restaurant chain’s locations are franchise-owned, this particular location, which is now 51 years old, is corporately owned and operated.

The value of the deal was not disclosed. The transaction was arranged by JLL Vancouver Capital Markets, which represented McDonald’s.

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In an email to Daily Hive Urbanized, Brodie Henrichsen, an executive vice president at JLL, says McDonald’s Canada felt the timing was right for a sale with the growing number of high-density, mixed-use developments in the immediate area and the new St. Paul’s Hospital campus just to the south, which is scheduled to open in 2027.

The sale included a leaseback component that enables the restaurant to continue operating until the project is ready for construction.

Moreover, the restaurant will return to the site with a new “flagship” restaurant located within the redevelopment’s ground-level commercial uses.

McDonald’s restaurant at 1527 Main Street, Vancouver. (Google Maps)

McDonald’s restaurant at 1527 Main Street, Vancouver. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

The new owner is already working on an application for submission to the municipal government. The development is expected to have multiple towers.

According to BC Assessment, as of July 2022, the 1.2-acre property has an assessed value of $73.536 million, with $73.498 million coming from the land and $38,300 coming from the two-storey, 11,100 sq ft structure.

This is up from the 2014 valuation of $24.5 million, before the completion of the first significant redevelopment projects immediately to the south.

McDonald’s has owned this restaurant ever since it was built in 1972. Its last major renovation was made just in time for the 2010 Winter Olympics, with the prime location’s adjacency to the Olympic Village, and when McDonald’s was still a major sponsor of the Olympic movement.

Within Vancouver, this location is also highly distinct for its busy drive-thru, which cannot be replicated in the future redevelopment due to municipal bylaws that ban such functions in new construction. The vast majority of the lot is currently used as surface vehicle parking.

McDonald’s restaurant at 1527 Main Street, Vancouver. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

This project is expected to benefit from the provincial government’s new transit-oriented development (TOD) legislation, which stipulates sites within a 400-metre radius of a SkyTrain station can see a height allowance of at least 20 storeys for residential or mixed-use residential uses. This restaurant location is well within the inner radius of the 800-metre TOD area prescribed by the province.

Just to the south at 1695 Main Street, Onni Group redeveloped a similar longstanding Burger King restaurant building in 2016 into its Block 100 residential and retail redevelopment.

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