Groundbreaking for new Riverton McDonald’s Restaurant is Thursday morning

An artist's rendering of the front elevation of the new Riverton McDonald's

(Riverton) — The new Riverton McDonald’s restaurant breaks ground, officially, Thursday morning and the new store is expected to be open by August.

“We’ll have a state-of-the-art store at our North Federal location,” said owner Bob Luck of Lander.  ”We’ll have all the newest bells and whistles from McDonald’s plus a PlayPlace that will include a toddler section and an older kid section with four levels,” Luck said. “Our store decor will be modern and bold and I think people will really like it. The outside of the building will be really sharp.”

Luck said the new store is a 45-87, meaning it will be 45 feet wide and 87 feet long, not including the play land area out front. It’s McDonald’s latest design for a store, he said.

Luck said the new store will also have more employees that the present store on West Main, which will be closed and ultimately razed. “We have close to 50 employees now including workers and supervisors, and we’ll be adding between 10 and 20 new positions,” Luck said. The new store will feature a two lane drive through, similar to the Lander store.

The new design of McDonald’s restaurants will be visible both inside and outside of the store, with the interior design and ordering process reflecting the future of McDonald’s Restaurants worldwide and the latest in food preparation and cooking equipment. “Our new low-oil  fryers will use 50 percent less oil and will be frequently filtered throughout the day for a fresher and cleaner tasting product,” Luck said. He also noted the restaurant will have the McCafe brands along with blended ice products and smoothies in addition to the regular McDonald’s fare.

The non drive-through side of the restaurant

“I’m really excited about this new store, it’s in a highly visible area, we’ll have better ingress and egress for cars and parking and I think it will work out well,” he said. Luck noted that the new location will have state-of-the-art security and camera systems inside and out and that an Energy Management System would reduce  the restaurant’s energy consumption.

After the new restaurant opens, on the site of the former V-1 gas and propane station across the street from Riverton City Hall, Luck said the old restaurant will be “de arched” and any resemblance to a McDonald’s restaurant will be removed. “We’ll remove all the equipment from the store and most likely will demolish the site and sell the property.”

General contractor for the project is Epic Construction of Centennial, Colo, a firm that erects new McDonald’s buildings around the region. “We will be using local sub-contractors as much as possible,” Luck said.

“Of course we’ll have a big grand opening when the restaurant is finished, with prizes and giveaways and such,” Luck said.

The official ground breaking ceremony Thursday is at 11 a.m. and will involve city and McDonald’s officials. Mayor Ron Warpness will be there along with other city leaders and McDonald’s Riverton store manager Alicia McKee and Luck’s area supervisor Jim Matthews, who oversees the McDonald’s store Luck owns in Lander, Riverton, Thermopolis and Worland.

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