Right?
Mr. Glanzmann, in your capacity with McDonald's, what does that look like on a day-to-day?
I'm an area construction manager.
I oversee construction projects of all nature all over the Bethesda region, which is the region that we exist in in Philadelphia.
yeah and i know you have been working on this with it's owned by a franchise operator correct
that's correct okay uh grant grant scholars who i don't believe could be here today but you've
been working on this for two years with mr skyless on the redevelopment of this location
correct that is correct yeah and as i understand it from you and from mr skyless you've been very
clear that um from mcdonald's perspective this building as is you know not just the restaurant
itself but the configuration and the vehicular and pedestrian access is just below what you want
represented by mcdonald's correct correct at this point um we're inefficient in the kitchen
we're inefficient in the drive-through we are unable to add any of the new upcoming items
in the kitchen to make whatever we're going to make the dirty sodas all these things that are
coming out uh we have very limited space uh we also have some issues with plumbing and electric
that are ongoing. Our operator stated he sees the restaurant as unreliable at times just from
the output that we can do because of our inefficiencies and our constraints of the
current kitchen. Great. And I know you met several times with the community, correct?
Yes. With me, yes. And we made a series of changes to come to this look that you see here,
correct we did and we we added in the glazing on the front the glazing on the back um the glazing
and windows looking into the parking lot and then even even when they said hey what else can you do
on the 52nd street side which is you know kind of back of house and it's tough to put windows on
you came up with just adding an architectural feature that has never been seen in pennsylvania
correct that's yeah that's correct um even the windows on the on the what we would consider the
back of the building, which faces, um, I'm sorry, chestnut stream. That is not a standard. That is
our, our freezer cooler area. So we listened to the community group, gave them an added feature
that they were expecting and hoping for. And as, uh, uh, Brett said, we, we added that additional
architectural feature. I, there might be five in the country, those French fries. I know they're
it's kind of abstract, but there's only five in the country. Um, and we will be the only one,
um as i know in pennsylvania and philadelphia has no others and we're we just built a new one in a
university pen and we're building another new one on 15th and walnut i believe it's 15th walnut
on 15th and walnut i believe it's 15th walnut and neither one of those locations will have this so
and neither one of those locations will have this
we will be exclusive this will be exclusive to our location at 50 seconds yeah and then just
can you just talk about like so the the interior you'll be using the uh modern uh new mcdonald's
motif in the interior correct correct it'll be a newer our seating and decor package will be a
newer package it's only existed for about two years now so that that'll be a major upgrade over
what's existing um the front counter layout will be different from what you've seen we'll have
additional ordering kiosks which will make the customer experience better and
anytime you can get in and get off the site in the restaurant and faster food
hot food not waiting around for 30 40 minutes it's better and that's what we're
trying to do with this kitchen is to you get the order in we're pushing it out
to you as fast as possible and as warm as possible and ideally to the standard
that we want to be hot fresh and made to order in a restaurant that looks absolutely
outside and that is warm and hospitable to the residents who live in this community correct and
that's i think one of the things that we as we're going through this process we want to upgrade the
building not just for for our own sake but it is it is a little bit of a blemish on the community
that that's there um we this is not a mcdonald standard that we'd want to show everywhere and
we're trying to upgrade those things you mean the existing restaurant that's there right now
you wouldn't accept this somewhere else uh we would not not at least not as long as it's been
there yeah so is there anything further you want to add as far as i i think the investment i mean
this is i mean there was any other way to avoid all this yes and to to have this restaurant we
talked about this a lot correct if we could if we could put it on chestnut if we could put it on
52nd street we did avoid this whole process we would have and ultimately you said to me what
we weren't able to do it and that's because it's just uh the the drive-through it's a huge portion
of this of this um operator's income and um i'm sorry yeah you're all aware um no the services
are at yeah i apologize yeah um and if we if we take that away it does impact him significantly
also it's going to impact the community i mean we have a high percentage of people coming into
the drive-through right now as inefficient as it is it they're they still want to use it so it isn't
something that's going away um and we're not going we're not getting and you're serving you're
serving customers 24 7 correct we are 24 7 out of the drive-thru um we are closed 10 to 6 in the
lobby um you can pick up orders at the pickup window um on the building but inside you can yeah
and you have a lot of customers who are coming in going into uh university of pennsylvania the
hospital night shift to get food coming in coming home to get breakfast using for breakfast from
from the medical complex that's very close by that's correct yeah and as brett said i just
want to reiterate we this is a major investment that we're prepared to to do and i you know
philadelphia is a union town and we will be using union labor in this location as we rebuild it which
mcdonald's in general does get away from but it is something that we know how significant and
important it is in the city so it's something that we want to make sure we do let me ask you
one question this was this was the the operator one of our calls describe the restaurant net right
now is unreliable meaning the operations because of the infrastructure of the restaurant are
unreliable but for customers it's unreliable because of the drive-through and all the concerns
that we've talked about correct is that is that characterized kind of how you look at it from
i would exactly right yeah is there anything further you'd like to add no no did he adopt
your testimony um you heard my testimony otherwise yes sorry yeah you heard my testimony otherwise
i did yes and is it true was it too inaccurate yes and you adopted as your own yes yeah and
justin you also heard my other testimony um was it true and accurate yes you adopted as your own
yes is there anything further you wanted to add you've been living this project for 10 years
I think, don't start the 10 years again.
We've been all living this for years.
We've got to move on a little bit.
Go ahead.
Yeah, I was just going to highlight, again, we highlighted a lot of the new interior,
just summarizing what we've done, what we've worked on.
We've touched on it a little bit, making it as walkable, as community-friendly as possible
with three pedestrian access points, one from Chestnut, one from 52nd, and one from Sansom.
All of those being strategically located at the highest pedestrian generators.
So the one on 52nd is right at the bus stop.
That's right. That's right here. Correct. That is correct.
Yeah. And that was something we worked on with the community.
That is correct. Yes.
And then the nicely landscaped access from Chestnut, that is right adjacent to the Y.
And then the nicely landscaped access from Chestnut, that is right adjacent to.
So trying to keep that as, you know, pull the pedestrians into the site as much as possible
and make it so that they don't have to walk through any drive aisles or minimize that travel time
where they have to cut across any sort of drive aisles there.
And then, again, from Sansom, located right across the street from the library.
So, trying to strategically locate those with the crosswalks that are proposed, the traffic calming speed bumps, the flashing pedestrian crossing signs, and then I think Brett touched on it earlier, the additional landscaping and landscaped areas.
So, we've reduced impervious cover on the site by about 1,000 square feet.
So, that's reduced runoff, that's improved water quality on the site, and the landscaping currently is very sparse.
right now we have there's about one tree and maybe a handful of shrubs uh proposed we're
we're proposing 23 trees and over 130 shrubs uh it's just to help uh make this as an attractive
location as possible um and combined again with reducing that impervious cover increasing the
landscape space we are installing a new stormwater system which again helps reduce stormwater rate
leaving the site uh improve water quality uh so overall it's going to be a benefit to the community
did he adopt your system yes he did yes he did are you done i am for now yes yes i am i am
questions from the board yes i have a question about the proposed changes and just specifically
is the new building a reduction in total square footage of the restaurant to the current it it is
a Justin help me on this it is yes the rest the building is smaller and as I mentioned it used to
be there was multi-tenant I think there was I don't know there's a tax preparer in there at
some point like in that that's that whole back half on 52nd Street that's all bunkered so then
my clarifying question is, is the McDonald's square footage smaller in the new building or
larger? Understanding that the old building had multiple tenants. It's slightly increased.
Slightly increased. Okay. How many seats could have been there for the old one? How many seats
in the old one? Because you said 60 here, right? In the old one, there were 68 seats, I believe.
You said 60 here? Yes. Yeah. And that was another change. I think we were down in the 50s.
Okay, and we again that was referencing the community letter how we increase the seating we had a we had a redesign the whole restaurant to get an additional 10 seats, but we did that to accommodate my second question is in this now parking.
It looks like the parking lot has a few less parking spaces to accommodate all of the stormwater and green infrastructure, which I commend you for because I think it's important.
Are any of these designated spots for short-term pickups?
Like people who are running in to do quick deliveries or pre-order,
because I know now you can do a McDelivery in the app
and can be ready for you for pickup.
We do.
Right now there are six spots.
You can see them in the upper right-hand corner there.
With the dots?
That's correct.
Yeah, those are off of Sanford Street.
yeah and then i think just the my last comment is like i understand a lot of the conversation i
think you guys have done a commendable job trying to accommodate all the commentary from the
community um but i do think like part of the problem that we have on these commercial quarters
in philadelphia this is a demonstrated precedent that we'd be setting on 52nd street i do
understand why that sentiment was made um and i think you know uh as we are trying to improve
these commercial corridors across the city and especially these targeted corridors which 52nd
street is one of them um you know a lot of this is really made around trying to make them as walkable
and as pedestrian friendly and to like really focus on street traffic and i think you guys have
done a lot of work here but it still feels like from like the sidewalk side it's it's still a car
thing like you know on your money shot you know view of mcdonald's is going to be people picking
up their food from the drive-through even if you do have some tree screened so um i think you know
just keeping that in mind like i've seen and i mean i grew up in the mcdonald play space era so
i have a very different idea you used to have one in the front that that's the setback i didn't grow
up here in philly but that's the step back in the front but you know i think there were like
outdoor seating there was like a lot there was garbage kids there was a lot of things there was
mcdonald's play pace there was things that were created to kind of create more of an outdoor park
like access that was like people focused rather than car focused and so I do think that just as
a statement I think to be able to find some way to get something in here because I think the only
to get something in here because i think the only other car focused thing does still have partial
other car focused thing does still have park.
frontage on 52nd street and they kind of turn the parking on the side it's a much smaller building
so not 100 applicable but they do have outdoor um what is it picnic table seating um to try to
create like an outdoor seating area and gathering area and i think like something like that might
be like might mitigate some of the commentary coming from the rcos and community can you tell
me what what um that's the barbecue joint it's like two blocks away from yeah all the questions
yeah i have a question so what percentage of your business is the business is drive-through
versus walking walk through walking uh currently right now we are at 40 percent uh typically we do
see that number go up um as we become more efficient uh what ends up happening especially
on the current layout is as justin mentioned we have four um basically get four cars in queue
and then you're done so people abandon the drive-through and they'll either park
uh in our lot if there's a there's available space or they'll park off lot and walk in
so by being able to accommodate more sites we do expect that drive-through number to go up okay and
in this diagram that you have up now um the cars come through i think there's two ways you can
order right two two window order windows so how many pickup windows do you have um when they come
in in a single lane on the southern portion of this uh diagram that i'm looking at sure um the
actual pickup windows there will be two uh what we we call them uh the cash booth which is the
first booth when you have to actually pay cash or pay the card if you didn't do mobile okay where
where is that on here it's where the pedestrian crosswalk is to the left okay it's right in that
area uh it's probably hard to see here but um right there yeah and then we have our present
booth which is the second booth it's probably right now where you see the the last car before
the space uh and thank justin that's the present booth and that will be an actual pickup with your
food portion and then we have a third window where you see that last car and that is the
if we're overly busy or you have a very large order you pull for it there one of our team
uh members will give your food out of a window so you have two technical pickup boots and you're
entering and exiting out of chestnut street yes yeah one one way direction
okay and does this build one last question so does your building i could the rendering of the
building um those those fries are they are they painted or the building or are they like a
different type of material that's attached to the building so are they obstructing any view of like
52nd street oh uh no um so there's two options and we haven't gone to that to that extent yet
so it's just proposal um we can paint them on or there are metal fabricated um pieces that we can
put onto the building itself so you would be able to save from 52nd street for sure okay all right
thank you welcome can you go back to that site plan for a second the um i guess the the concern
i guess that the the overall community has is that it's it's a very suburban model in a very
urban context right it's just it just is so i guess the question is did you ever consider going
up um as opposed to just a one-story building when everything around there's either two stories or
three stories the other thing is um on the corner where the um um bus stop is it's a pinch point
it's very tight i used to go to the gym there the y so i know this is very well yeah absolutely
it's like very well i know the drive through i know the inside and out um i remember when it
built but that whole area right on the corner of 52nd and chestnut is just very tight and it seems
that with this plan you have the opportunity to give some more back to the um to the public way
by even creating something more and nicer on this this corner here since you're set so far back so
that may be a consideration in what you can do there. The other question that I have is
how do you get from the Sansom Street? I see the walkway, but where's the pedestrian
entrance, the main entrance? Right there. It's right there. You come into the restaurant right
there. Okay. So is that the back entrance or is that the main front entrance? That's actually
the front entrance so if i'm coming off of 52nd street and i'm and i'm walking i have to go to
that entrance to go into the into the uh the store well if you're on 52nd you can either
go up to samson and come in through the the crosswalk right there or you can
crosswalk right where from where the septa um the second crosswalk that's right here okay so
um the second crosswalk that's right here okay so so so what's what's so so this is actually the
back and this is the main entrance the main pedestrian entrance is that what you're saying