Former McDonald's on Online Auction Block

Who wants a former McDonald’s restaurant?

The property and building that housed a former McDonald’s restaurant at 124 E. Main Street in are for sale on an online auction between Nov. 7 and Nov. 16.

Bids begin Nov. 7 and the property will be auctioned at 2 p.m. Nov. 16, according to Berenice Montesinos, of broker and auctioneer Rick Levin and Associates Inc. of Chicago.

The minimum bid for the property is $437,500. The sale includes the building and the parking lots on either side, totaling a 36,000-square-foot lot. The starting price is for $12.15 per square foot. The minimum bid includes a buyer’s premium fee of 4 percent of the final high bid.

According to Levin’s website, the lot is part of a set of corporate-owned surplus properties.

The owner, according to Montgomery County records, is Franchise Realty Interstate Corp., doing business as McDonald’s USA LLC, according to property records and a sales contract.

Other properties up for auction owned by Franchise Realty Interstate Corp. are located in Arkansas, Illinois, Michigan, Maine, Arizona and New York.

In most cases, McDonald’s owns the properties of its restaurants. Franchise owners pay for rent and services. If McDonald’s doesn’t own the property, then it leases it, and then turns around and offers a franchise.

The former McDonald’s closed for good on June 20, 2010. It was a franchise of Frank Franco of Richboro.

Franco owns four McDonald’s franchises, including the one at . He also owns two in Bucks County and one in Philadelphia County.

Franco said he owned the restaurant for eight years. McDonald’s offers franchise agreements for a minimum of 20 years.

Franco said he purchased the franchise from another owner. The franchise agreement terminated on June 20, 2010.

“When it goes from one owner to another, you buy the remaining term of the franchise,” he said.

Franco submitted plans to Lansdale Borough Council that year to rotate the building 90 degrees, making the drive-through parallel with East Main Street. Council denied the plan.

He said the restaurant wasn't up to today’s standards.

“In running and operating a McDonald’s based on drive-thru traffic, I wanted to turn it 90 degrees and the borough said no. In trying to conduct business in its current form, it didn’t make sense anymore,” he said.

“The borough wants to make everything ‘walk up.’ They are trying to move (their streetscapes) toward where McDonald’s was at, but they haven’t crossed Broad Street,” he said. “I think that’s their intention.”

Franco said the location isn’t as small as it looks. He said the minimum bid price was a “good price.”

“I think the location would make for a good sit-down restaurant. Full service,” he said.

According to the property deed, Lansdale McDonald’s of Pennsylvania Inc. sold the property to Franchise Realty Interstate Corp. for $10 on May 1, 1975.

The lot, according to the deed, was “the same premise which Russell Lizell (formerly known as Russell Lizzio) and Sarah Lizzell (formerly known as Sarah Lizzio) … granted and conveyed unto Anthony R. Lizell and Ingrid Lizell in fee.”