McDonalds to reopen on Dec. 1

The McDonald's restaurant at 40th and Walnut streets, which has been closed for renovations all semester, will re-open on or around December 1, a McDonald's official said this week. Tim Bluett, the operating manager for McDonald's, said a franchisee to take over the operations of the 40th and Walnut location has been found. Bluett declined to specify who the franchisee is because the final contracts have not been signed. Chris Mason, the president of University City Associates, the University's real-estate management company, said yesterday the University had tried to buy the property. "[McDonald's] said they were not interested in selling because a franchisee had been lined up," Mason said. Mason said he met with Bluett and other McDonald's executives and was assured that the restaurant's new management would be "willing to work with the community." Bluett confirmed this yesterday, and said the new McDonald's will be extensively remodeled. "There will be a much brighter interior and totally new equipment," Bluett said. Mason said McDonald's executives assured him that the restaurant would be closed by 11 or 11:30 p.m. Previously, the restaurant was open much later -- it was open 24 hours for a time -- in violation of its lease. Bluett said he thinks the McDonald's previously had a bad reputation, and said it will be different under the new management. "Our image [at 40th and Walnut] in the past was nowhere near our reputation nationally and internationally," Bluett said. "We realized we needed to take a much different approach." "I know it's going to be a much different situation than it has been in the past," he said. The McDonald's at 40th and Walnut streets had acquired a reputation on campus as a locus of violent crime. There have been at least two violent deaths at that location within the last five years. The restaurant became cynically referred to by University students as "McDeath." Mason, although enthusiastic about the idea of a new, safer McDonald's, expressed one misgiving over McDonald's plans for its re-opening. He said he thinks McDonald's should wait until the beginning of the spring semester to re-open, instead of opening on December 1, when University students will be leaving several weeks afterward. "Why not say 'to heck with the first semester' and wait for the beginning of the second semester?" Mason asked. Bluett said McDonald's had considered that option. "We wanted to give the University community a positive image before the winter holiday, and to let them know that was only the beginning," he said. "We hope to open with a real bang."

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