A new McDonald’s restaurant will be developed in Hillyard next year to replace one that has been operating along north Market Street since the late 1970s.

The Washington state Department of Transportation’s acquisition of property near Market Street will force the demolition of a longstanding McDonald’s restaurant at 3416 N. Market, says Mark Ray, the restaurant’s owner.

The building will be demolished to make way for the continued construction of the North Spokane Corridor, Ray says. Construction on the new restaurant will start in March 2016, and Ray anticipates opening the new restaurant by the middle of June.

Meanwhile, the current restaurant will be demolished in May 2016, Ray says. The new restaurant won’t be far away. “We’re basically moving across the street. This move has been in play for about five to seven years now, so it was expected,” he says.

The current McDonald’s restaurant there was built in 1978. Ray bought out his business partner at the time two years after the outlet opened, he says. Spokane Foods Services Inc., which Ray owns, operates 15 McDonald’s outlets throughout the Spokane area. The company once owned and operated nearly two-dozen restaurants, but Ray says he has transferred ownership of seven McDonald’s restaurants to his sons.

 “With the freeway coming south of Wellesley, if you don’t move the current restaurant, then traffic would literally come right through the building,” Ray says. The total estimated construction cost of the new restaurant is just slightly more than $1 million, he says.

He estimates the current restaurant has between 4,000 and 4,500 square feet of space, and he anticipates the new outlet will be roughly the same size. “We’re hoping to have the final design within the next month or two,” he says.

While the exact square footage has yet to be determined, the restaurant will feature a more modern design similar to those that McDonald’s has converted to in recent years. 

The outlet will have seating for at least 80 people and will feature side-by-side drive-through lanes, Ray says.