The Squire Road McDonald’s may make a move across the street after more than 40 years at the current location.
The restaurant is one of the oldest locations in the region and scores of residents remember it as a destination during their youth. Older residents remember it as the centerpiece of an ongoing fight between homeowners and highway businesses in the late 1970s.
Last week, the owners of Northgate Mall put in a petition to locate a McDonald’s on their property in place of the Pearle Vision building. The Pearle building would move behind Taco Bell.
Sara Teck, owner of the Revere McDonald’s, and Kevin Feeney, area real estate manager for McDonald’s Boston, confirmed that they are in negotiations to move the old McDonald’s across the street into Northgate.
“This McDonald’s is about 35 years old,†said Feeney. “We try to do the right things by our customers and we try to update our restaurants whenever we can with added conveniences and décor…If you look at this McDonald’s and a newly renovated McDonald’s, you will see that in 35 years, there’s been a lot of new advances.â€
He said they would be building a new 3,900 sq. ft. building without a Playplace. There would be 45 parking spaces and 75 seats, with a drive-thru.
An application for the change has been submitted by the Northgate owners and will be before the City Council for a public hearing on May 21. Mayor Tom Ambrosino has indicated that he does support the plan. However, given the rocky relationship with Northgate over the years, Ward 6 Councillor Mark Casella indicated he may not be in support of the plan unless Northgate owners became more responsive to his concerns.
As for the current location, Feeney said they do own the property and aren’t sure what they will do with it as of yet.
“We haven’t made any decisions on what we would do with the property,†he said. “There’s a number of internal and external approvals we still need. This is still very early in the process.â€