Owners of Roch. McD's buy two in Austin, 1 in Albert Lea

During my chat with Rick Lommen, the president of Courtesy Corp., he said the Austin McDonald's is not the only one that will be leveled and re-built (like the North Broadway one).

"We'd like to re-build more in Rochester. we are working on that," he told me.

Enough of Rochester, here's some of the story about what was served up in Austin Wednesday.

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Austin’s 40-year-old McDonald’s restaurant on Oakland Avenue is slated to be rebuilt from the floor to the top of the Golden Arches this spring.

That comes from Courtesy Corp. of Onalaska, Wis., the company that bought both the two McDonald’s in Austin as well as one in Albert Lea on Wednesday.

They were sold by Dave Scherer and his family. Scherer’s father opened the Oakland Avenue McDonald’s in 1969.

Courtesy now owns 11 restaurants in Minnesota, five of which it acquired in Rochester in 2001. It owns 42 McDonald’s over in Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin.

Why buy three new locations, one of which will be demolished and re-built, in southeastern Minnesota now?

“It seemed a natural extension to look beyond Rochester to Austin. This was close by and it is an attractive business,” says Rick Lommen, president of Courtesy Corp.

As for buying during now, Lommen says McDonald’s sales have stayed solid with their economical offerings.

Comments

[Truecoat]

Jeff, is Courtesy buiding the Zumbrota location also? I see that the walls are going up at that location.

[Jake]

Where in Zumbrota is the McDonald's going to be located?

[Alan]

I hope the keep both of the old-school signs (the classic Googie-style one pictured, and the giant double-arches out on Oakland Ave).

BTW, Jeff, the Flickr photo you used is All Rights Reserved, not Creative Commons. I doubt the guy would mind, but careful.

[Truecoat]

The McDonalds is being built on the opposite side of 52, behind the Alco store.

[Truecoat]

The building I thought was McDonalds is something else. They are laying a foundation in front of Alco that looks to be the McDonalds. This makes more sense in location.