February 6, 2025

McDonald's poised for U District return

Photo by Brian Miller [enlarge]

The corner building is on a stretch of The Ave that the city still hasn’t upzoned.

There was a McDonald's in the University District from 1984 through 2000, when its lease ended. That was on The Ave, north of Northeast 45th Street, with its distinctive but odd little takeout window. The closure, as the UW Daily and Seattle Times then noted, seemed a dire portent of The Ave's decline. If you can't sell burgers to hungry students, what hope is there?

But now, after a quarter century's absence, the Golden Arches is poised to return, this time south of 45th. Civil engineer Atwell filed early plans this week for the fast food chain to occupy the vacant former Flowers Bar space, at 4247 University Way N.E. That building, of course, was home to Ness Flowers from the 1940s until circa 1991. The bar and restaurant moved in the following year. It had its liquor license suspended in 2023, and apparently closed at some point last year.

Ewing & Clark's Cameron Kent and Tom Graff represent the building, also home to the Korean eatery Bugis and a noodle shop (both to remain).

Flowers' corner bay offers about 2,006 square feet. However, the new Atwell plan suggests that McDonald's will also displace Cedars of Lebanon, on the building's north side, and fill the vacant former Thai Food Box space — also facing Northeast 43rd Street. That yields around 3,413 square feet, or about half the building. The Lebanese restaurant may be on a short-term lease.

California firm PM Design Group is attached as the architect. There's no indication yet as to a builder. PM often designs for McDonald's, with over 1,260 stores to date, and has a Tacoma office.

The Ness building is on the corner of 43rd, which is there a pedestrian-only, city-designated Green Street, with popular picnic tables for outdoor dining. And it's mere steps from U District Station, so the proposed new McD's would presumably benefit from high pedestrian traffic heading to and from the UW campus. Its franchises typically sign decades-long leases. McDonald's didn't respond before deadline to a DJC query about the new location.

The century-old building is still owned by the Peha family. The florist closed soon after the 1990 death of Joseph Ness Peha. Part of the original signage remains, though it's not in good repair.

The Flowers website says that it expects to open in a new location.

For its part, though almost synonymous with drive-thru operations, McDonald's has proven willing to change that format. Having lost its lease near Seattle Center, after four decades, it later moved to nearby KOMO Plaza — with sit-down dining and takeout, but no drive-thru. There, PM Design worked with ADM Construction Group. The same Ewing & Clark duo also brokered that deal.

And the downtown McDonald's on Third Avenue is still going strong after decades, but now serving takeout only.