"It's gonna be tough to tear it down," said Swoszowski, "because it's where we cut our teeth, my late partner and I, many, many years ago."
Swoszowski and his late partner Frank Marquette took over operation of the Jesse Jewell Parkway franchise in 1973, two years after McDonald's opened it as a company store. It was the very first McDonald's restaurant in Gainesville.
"It was built as strictly a walk-up store originally ," remembered Swoszowski. "It had no seating in it. A year and a half later, they put side seating in, and then a year after that, they put a few extra things in it. About six years later, we added front seating, and then we added a drive-thru."
Swoszowski said the store is really a hodge-podge of wiring and piping and concrete, and it is time to modernize the facility.
Besides needing a facelift, though, Swoszowski said the restaurant needs to be revamped to accomodate the volume of customers it serves.
"I'm very happy to say that the store is now one of the leading volume stores in the state of Georgia," stated Swoszowski. "[That is] another reason why we have to tear it down...it just can't keep up with the volume of customers."
The restaurant will remain open through regular business hours on Saturday, August 1. Demolition should begin on August 4. And before fall is over, the new restaurant should be open.
"The new store has this new theme called 'Forever Young'," said Swoszowski. It will be completely different from the more traditional designs of his other stores in the Gainesville area, which he prefers, but he noted "it's a new way McDonald's has of doing business."
Tentative re-opening date is October 29, 2009.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2009/7/221990