Right from the start in our relationship with them, we proved our ability to keep costs in line and complete multiple locations in a timely manner. For instance, in the 1990’s, we were instrumental in streamlining a process for building and opening over 70 McDonald’s “Express” units within a two-year period.
Our creative approach to construction was also apparent from the beginning, so over the years, McDonald’s has often negotiated with us for their most challenging projects enabling them to take advantage of desirable locations and historic properties, as was the case at 2481-83 18th Street in Northwest Washington, DC.
In order to preserve its historic façade, while making the building function for McDonald’s, we undertook a series of special measures to shore up the entire exterior, including the roof, while completely removing the interior in order to build a 3-story restaurant in this spectacular building which originally served as the office for the first African American physician in Washington, DC.
The result? A beautifully preserved, historic building with a modern, thriving McDonald’s inside.
More recently, as was the case at 5311 Duke Street in Alexandria, VA, McDonald’s negotiated with us to develop the procedure by which existing modular built stores (now experiencing failures) could be completely rebuilt while maintaining the exterior façade, enabling McDonald’s to compromise with zoning and waive other regulatory compliance issues and their additional expense associated with new construction.
This involved shoring up the walls and mansard roof section that was to remain prior to removing the entire roof, ceiling, floor, and finishes as well as removal of unsuitable soils from the 3’ constricted crawl space, backfilling with engineered stone to grade, and placing a new slab (now on-grade) upon which we built the structural steel framed new interior.