Demolition Of Nanuet McDonald's Paves Way For Construction Of New Building

On Tuesday morning, the s on Route 59 was knocked down, marking the first step in the process to rebuild a new, more "green" one in the same location.

Rony Martinez, the foreman of the construction site, said the project should take no more than 120 days, and a sign hanging on the temporary fence around the construction area says the new McDonald's will open in November. He added that the construction could finish early if everything goes smoothly.

"Today we started the [demolition] of the building," Martinez said. "Cleaning everything up will take about a week."

He said he and his crew of five other people started knocking down the building at around 8 a.m. Tuesday, starting with the roof. They used two 220s, a kind of crane truck, to knock down the building after first wetting it to lessen the dust and debris from the building.

And while the building is now just a large pile of rumble, possibly even taller than the building while it was standing, part of what takes so long to clean it up is because the crew has to separate each part of the building. So wood goes with wood, trash with trash, brick with brick, etc. Because of this, there is one tiny portion of a brick wall still standing, which they hadn't knocked down so as to not mix the brick in with the other materials on the ground already. The metal, Martinez said, is recycled.

After the clean up, Martinez said they will repave the sidewalks and redo the curbs. Early on, he also has people coming in to do the foundation and plumbing.

"We'll have up to 30-40 people working here," Martinez said. "We have people to do the plumbing, people for the foundation and concrete. This is a big process."

Bruce Szczepanski, Director of Development, McDonald’s, New York Metro Region, provided Patch with this media statement, "At McDonald’s, customer satisfaction is top priority.  We always strive to not just meet, but exceed expectations by evolving to stay relevant  to our consumers.  We appreciate the patience of the Nanuet community as the local McDonald’s is closed for reconstruction.  We look forward to debuting a contemporary restaurant redesign to provide a welcoming, inviting and memorable dining experience every visit beginning this fall."