Restaurant planned for new construction at Wichita’s Normandie Center is a bit delayed
Over the summer, Wichita watched as one longtime building at Normandie Center, Central and Woodlawn, was knocked down and a brand new one started going up.
Now, some are wondering what’s going to open in the new construction, which now has four walls and lots of green siding.
Back in February, The Eagle reported that Bob Lane of Lane Enterprises was considering moving his longtime McDonald’s at Central and Edgemoor to the center at Central and Woodlawn. At the time, the deal wasn’t done, but it was completed shortly after.
When the new McDonald’s — which will be in a free-standing building closest to Central in the center — opens, it will have a dual drive-through, mobile ordering and payment, and “all the latest and greatest technology,” Lane said.
Originally, he planned to have the new McDonald’s open by early November, Lane said, but he’s facing the same issues many other people trying to open businesses in new construction are facing: equipment shortages and delays. He’s struggling, for example, with getting the building’s heating and air conditioning units delivered.
“I’m pretty certain we won’t make the first week of November,” Lane said. “I’m sure hoping for sometime in December.”
The old McDonald’s building, which was built in 1984, just wasn’t suiting McDonald’s needs anymore, Lane said. The building was aging, and the corner lot has no room for a dual drive through.
The Normandie Center lot will help him serve customers better, he said.
“We think it’s going to be a really good move for all of us and our customers,” he said. “It’s not very far from where we are, and it’s just a better fit.”
What will become of the old McDonald’s building?
Lane said that the property is actually owned by McDonald’s and that the chain will likely try to find a new tenant to take it over.
The Normandie Center building that came down over the summer to make way for the new McDonald’s was home to many businesses over the years, including Gessler Drugs and NuWay, which earlier this year moved into the former Anne’s Fashion space next to Il Primo Espresso Cafe in the the center. NuWay had operated in the building for 30 years.
For a period from the mid-1960s until the early 1970s, the building also served as the home of an east-side version of the popular Lancer’s Club, best known for operating on the lower level of the Century Plaza building downtown.
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