What's Happening With Beverly's Old McDonald's On Water Street

BEVERLY, MA — Several years ago it looked like the Black Cow restaurant would eventually develop on the site of the old McDonald's, despite hang ups in court. Last week, any last hopes for those rooting for Black Cow may have been put to rest when the state agreed to change the name of a liquor licence that had been set up in the restaurant's name there for nearly a decade.

"The city is now looking to have the ability to issue the liquor license to a new restaurant at the same property," Mayor Michael Cahill said in a memo to city council.

And the mayor is in talks with interested parties about the possibility of a new restaurant on the site, according to city documents and the city council president.

Since 2006, the McDonald's at 1 Water Street has sat more or less vacant (it has served as a homeless shelter and as a place to park the recycling bins) as the city looked to redevelop the area. Then Joseph A. Leone was primed to open The Black Cow restaurant there, the restaurant owner with two other Black Cow locations signed a lease with the city. The city even applied in 2009 for an additional liquor licence in his name.

But there were complications. Because the property was Designated Port Area some four decades before, it meant the site could only be used for marine industrial uses. Court battles over the proposed restaurant ensued, but to no avail.

After years of back and forth, and some confusion about whether the lease was terminated or not, the Black Cow never opened and the old fast food restaurant still sits empty on the waterfront. The city, meanwhile, looked set to work to get out of the port area designation with the redevelopment vision.

In 2015 the city sent out new RFPs looking for a potential business to set up shop on the city-owned lot. And then - more or less - all was quiet.

Now there's movement again. In September the mayor asked the City Council to vote to take steps to prep the transfer of the liquor licence.

City Council President Paul Guanci said back before he got on the city council the city used a grant to buy the lot, and stipulations for that grant still stand.

"The biggest thing is finding someone who can develop it that will respect the fact that we need to have some public benefit," he told Patch.

The mayor is getting ready to put out another RFP and is in talks with some parties, according to Guanci.

The way the planning department envisions the set up is that a full service restaurant would use the second and third floor with a deck for their business, but the first floor would have to be used with public benefit.

Guanci said Flatbread pizza almost moved in at one point: but they didn’t want to comply with the terms of the RFP - providing public access to the waterfront. So that fell through.

Guanci said he believes a tax incentive might help a restaurant put settle there and the city is talking about doing something similar to what it has done for industrial complexes over the years. In the late 1990s, when the Commings Center came to town the city wooed it with one. And two more industrial complexes are moving in and they are planning to offer something similar there. So why not this restaurant?

"We really need someone to take a chance here, build building pay for construction and be responsible for real estate taxes.... To get someone serious here I think you would have to throw them a bone," he said regarding the stipulations on the property.

On January 30 the city's request that the Black Cow's name be struck from the 2009 piece of legislature was approved by the Massachusetts legislature and signed by Gov. Charlie Baker. Next up demolition of the old McDonald's and an RFP.

Beverly plans to keep the license at the 1 Water Street location.

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Read more:

Court Halts Plans for Waterfront Black Cow

Check out the Salem News's in depth take on what happened back in 2015.

Google Maps Screen Grab of 1 Water Street

Jenna Fisher can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com. Follow her on Twitter (@ReporterJenna) and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).