Photos by Nick Lovejoy
The McDonald’s restaurant on San Felipe Road is set to undergo a complete rebuild in the next couple months.
“That store opened in November 1980, 36 years ago,” said Owner Gary Carlisle. “McDonald’s has changed a lot. When that was built, the menu was a lot less than what it is today. The kitchen is tight and the building is getting to an age where it’s not feasible to remodel that store any longer.”
Carlisle, owner of Carlisle Enterprises, owns two McDonald’s restaurants in Hollister. His company also owns a business complex off Bert Drive. He said the San Felipe Road McDonald’s location has been remodeled three or four times since it was built.
Hollister Development Services Director Bryan Swanson said the existing restaurant consists of 3,022 square feet of restaurant floor area and 210 square feet for the cooler area. He said the city is excited and fortunate that Carlisle is reinvesting in the community.
“The site sits at an important gateway leading into downtown Hollister, and the new building will provide a great level of synergy along the San Felipe corridor,” Swanson said over email. “The applicant received site and architectural approval to demolish the existing McDonald’s restaurant and rebuild a new 4,456 square foot McDonald’s restaurant, trash enclosure, double drive thru layout, accessible path of travel to sidewalk and site branding on a 0.91 acre site.”
Carlisle said the project is known as a scrape and rebuild. The building is going to be demolished and repositioned in the center of the lot. Parking will be on the north side of the building.
“It will be a new, modern McDonald’s that will give our employees an opportunity to enhance customer experience,” Carlisle said. “We’re building for the future. Quite frankly, the building is worn out. It’s a huge capital expenditure, but we want to be ready for the future.”
Carlisle said he expects the store to be closed between 110 to 120 days. The last day of operation is expected to be May 7, with demolition starting May 8.
“Undoubtedly, we’ll be closed most of the summer,” he said.”
Despite the temporary closure, Carlisle said he’s excited about the rebuild.
“We’re doing this to give the customer a phenomenal service experience,” he said.
