McDonald's to close
The restaurant's owners decided not to renew their lease with MU.
Published Jan. 25, 2008
After 30 years, the McDonald's on Lowry Mall will be open for only one more semester.
Owners Mark and Kate Mehle notified MU officials during winter break that they would not renew the McDonald's restaurant's 10-year lease with the university, which expires in
June.
McDonald's spokesman Lili Vianello said the restaurant would not cease operation until after the end of the spring semester.
The Mehles have owned the restaurant since July 1, 2006, Vianello said.
They own other McDonald's restaurants in Columbia, Ashland, Boonville, Fayette, Mexico and Kingdom City.
Sophomore Christopher Perry said he will miss the McDonald's once it closes. Perry said he eats lunch at McDonald's two or three times a week and values its low
prices.
"It's nice to have," Perry said. "I'll find other places, but it will be a part of campus that is gone."
MU has owned the building that houses McDonald's since 1999, when it bought the building from MBS Textbook Exchange Inc. and
took over the restaurant's 10-year lease.
MU spokeswoman Mary Jo Banken said the university has not decided what will take the space vacated by McDonald's.
Vianello did not offer any reasons behind the owners' decision.
"The choice not to renew the lease was a business decision made by McDonald's Corporation in conjunction with the local franchise owner," Vianello said in an e-mail. "It is standard practice for McDonald's to review and evaluate restaurant locations at the time of lease renewal."
Vianello said the 10-year length or the terms of the lease did not affect the owners' decision not to renew.
In the past year, the restaurant made the decision to close on weekends.
Previously, it had been closed on Sundays with limited hours on Saturdays.
"Saturday sales did not justify keeping the restaurant open," Vianello stated in an e-mail.
McDonald's faces stiff competition with the Brady Commons food court, Subway in Brady Commons,
Wheatstone Bistro at Memorial Union and several off-campus restaurants on Ninth Street within easy walking distance.
When the restaurant opened in 1978, Lowry was a street open to traffic.
Now, Lowry and the restaurant are only accessible to pedestrians.
Vianello said McDonald's will offer Lowry Mall location's employees positions at one of the other five local McDonald's restaurants.