Minneapolis resident Adam Wysopal was pleased to find a sign advertising available space in the lot of a derelict Burger King near his home on Nicollet Avenue.
Not because he was interested in buying the lot, but because he simply wanted the restaurant’s unused drive-thru gone. The sign, placed by Texas-based commercial real estate giant CBRE on Monday, marks the end of a years-long legal battle over the property.
“I’d love to see that property developed,” says Wysopal, who’s filed two lawsuits against the city to get the drive-thru closed for good.
It’s been nearly four years since the city of Minneapolis formally banned construction of new drive-thrus, but the legal and philosophical battles over them remain. And though the fate of this particular drive-thru is sealed for reasons beyond the city’s most recent regulations, there are still plenty of other highly trafficked drive-thrus scattered across the city – a sign that, for better or worse, the drive-thru era is far from over in Minneapolis.
Appeals, appeals, appeals
Built in 1964, the Burger King at 3342 Nicollet Avenue has sat vacant for years. Today, the store is behind a fence and covered with graffiti. P3 Foods – the franchisee that used to run the location – filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy back in 2016. Two years later, in April 2018, the franchisee closed nine Burger King locations in Minnesota, including the Nicollet Avenue store and another on West Broadway.
Another franchisee – Chicago-based Cave Enterprises Operations LLC – stepped in and submitted a formal franchise application to Burger King Corp. in December 2018 to take over the store.
Yet another year went by, and the Nicollet store still hadn’t reopened.
In the interim, in August 2019, the city enacted its drive-thru ban, which prohibited the construction of new drive-thrus anywhere in the city. That ordinance garnered lots of national press and attention, but its effects were wildly overstated since the city had already been slowly banning drive-thrus in various parts of the city for decades. In fact, a zoning change going back as far as 1999 had prohibited drive-thrus where the Nicollet Avenue Burger King sits. After that, the location was actually operating under a “nonconforming use” exemption.
So, in December 2019, Burger King corporate asked the city to reinstate permission to reopen the drive-thru. The only problem? The store had been closed for over a year, and Minnesota law says that a property is considered “abandoned” if it’s not used for more than a year. An entity could still argue that it was unable to re-open a drive-thru in a timely fashion for reasons beyond its control, but, in this case, the city didn’t buy it. The Zoning Board of Adjustment denied Burger King’s application.
In February 2020, Burger King appealed the decision to a different Minneapolis entity: The Zoning and Planning Commission, which gave its blessing and overruled the Zoning Board of Adjustment’s earlier decision. To bolster its case to the commission, Burger King had even hired former Minneapolis city councilmember Jackie Cherryhomes to lobby the city on its behalf.
“I guess she was quite successful in her lobbying efforts, and I think that’s why the Zoning and Planning Committee granted the appeal,” says Wysopal.
Still, Wysopal, a lawyer himself, was undeterred. Within days of the planning commission’s decision, Wysopal filed a complaint in Hennepin County District Court in an attempt to prevent the drive-thru from reopening. He argued that the committee “acted arbitrarily and capriciously” in granting Burger King’s appeal.
Wysopal’s first suit was unsuccessful. Hennepin County judge Jamie Anderson agreed with Burger King and said the company had demonstrated “clear and convincing evidence” that it was unable to reopen due to circumstances beyond its control.
For a time, Wysopal had resigned himself to a drive-thru across the street. “I assumed I would see construction permits getting pulled within weeks after my lawsuit ended,” he says. Still, nothing. The Burger King at Nicollet still sat empty.
In the summer of 2021, Wysopal believed he had another shot. He sent letters to the city attorney’s office noting that the store had remained utterly closed for essentially three years. He says the city “blew me off,” so he filed yet another lawsuit in November of 2021. This one was slightly different: A petition for a writ of mandamus – essentially asking the court to compel the city to enforce its own laws.
With the threat of a second lawsuit, the city changed its mind and agreed that Burger King had lost its rights to a drive-thru. Wysopal then withdrew his suit without prejudice.
Burger King had started the process to appeal once more but apparently gave up. In December 2021, the city sent a letter to Cave Enterprises LLC noting that building permits for reestablishing a drive-thru at the Nicollet location had been canceled. Whoever buys the property at 3342 Nicollet won’t be able to reopen the drive-thru, either.
Burger King corporate and Cave Enterprises didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment this week.
David Daly, a senior VP with CBRE who’s marketing the former Burger King space, says he’s already heard from several interested parties. There’s even been an offer on the space, though it hasn’t been formally accepted yet. The lot is owned by an entity known as Arjun Investments LLC. Hennepin County property records show that the property last sold in 2000 for $395,000. Its estimated market value today, according to the county, is $854,200.
The likeliest option for the lot is a multi-family residential development, though that would require a zoning change.
The American way?
In the broader picture, in a city where construction of new drive-thrus is banned, it’s a bit surprising to see one close. Love them or hate them, drive-thrus generate a lot of money for fast-food chains, which is why many companies are willing to go through lengthy legal battles to save them.
“In the United States, drive-thrus are the single most valuable piece of restaurant space there is right now,” says Jonathan Maze, editor-in-chief of Restaurant Business magazine.
Based on his observations of the industry, drive-thrus can generate anywhere from 70% to 80% of a chain restaurant’s revenue. “To understand how important they’ve become,” Maze says, “just go to Brooklyn Park and look at that Taco Bell” – a behemoth two-story structure with four lanes.
It’s easy to joke about drive-thrus or dismiss them as irrelevant, but it’s hard to deny that they’re still deeply embedded in American life, for better or worse. Even in more progressive-oriented cities like Minneapolis. The McDonald’s drive-thru at 24th Street and Nicollet Avenue, for instance, is still heavily trafficked, with cars often spilling out into the street during the breakfast rush. There are plenty of busy drive-thrus along Lake Street and in North Minneapolis, too. The suburbs, of course, are chock full of them.
By some estimates, there are as many as 200,000 drive-thrus across the United States. And drive-thrus are, more or less, a distinctly American phenomenon. Maze says they’re still being built in other parts of the world, but nowhere near as extensively as they are in the U.S.
“Drive-thrus are very popular, and they’ll remain very popular until people stop using cars,” Maze says. “Regulators might say something different, but the fact of the matter is people really like using them.”
Maze maintains that, if the Burger King location were another fast-food chain, it probably wouldn’t have closed, especially given the high value of drive-thrus these days. But on a revenue basis, Burger King is behind its competitors. A typical Burger King location generates about $1.5 million in revenue a year, while a McDonald’s can easily surpass $3.6 million for a single location, Maze says.
Meanwhile, drive-thru regulation certainly isn’t unique to Minneapolis. After the city’s total ban was enacted in 2019, other cities in New York, New Jersey, and Missouri followed suit with bans of their own. Several Canadian cities have banned them, too. In perhaps one of the most aggressive actions, the city of Santa Barbara, California, declared a local Chick-fil-A a public nuisance due to the “major traffic back-ups that result from the restaurant’s drive-thru lanes,” a local TV station reported.
Exactly how many drive-thrus remain in the city of Minneapolis isn’t totally clear, and the city apparently doesn’t keep tabs on it. “Drive-thrus are not licensed or otherwise tracked in any way,” said city spokeswoman Sarah McKenzie in an email. “The City has no way of knowing how many are currently operating. From an enforcement or regulatory perspective, there is no reason for the City to need this data.”
For his part, Wysopal still counts the closure of the Nicollet Avenue Burger King as a success. For him, it’s part of the slow march toward a future without drive-thrus.
“I personally would love to see more phased out,” he says, “but it’s probably going to be a long time for the ones that are still up and running.”
The legal field in Minnesota certainly seems like the wrong career choice if lawyers are renting across the street from an abandoned Burger King. I thought the main point of becoming a lawyer was to be able to afford to live somewhere nice.
Thanks Bill! Yes, I was not a rich lawyer when I bought my house and didn’t want to be house-poor, so I bought what I could afford in an area I liked. I love my neighborhood and the proximity to a bunch of great things. I can walk to several amazing restaurants, I’m a 5 minute bike ride to Bde Maka Ska, a 15 minute walk to Lyn Lake, etc. I took a chance that the neighborhood would see a lot of investment over the next 20 years, and it’s been happening. There’s been several new developments along Nicollet and more on the way.
Adam,
As a near neighbor, I’d like to say THANK YOU! One fewer Burger King will be missed by nobody, and undoubtedly something better will arise from its ashes. Whether it’s a unique neighborhood restaurant, another apartment building, or something completely different we’ll have an asset in the community, as opposed to a liability.
Thank you.
Maybe the state will get the property set up as multi-family dwelling and house illegal immigrants in it. Won’t that be a hoot?
My son and his wiffe lived on Nicollet near this location for a couple of years before the owner of the house they were renting decided to sell it and they were forced to move. They really enjoyed the area and were sad about leaving it.
For myself, I NEVER use drive throughs. 95% of the time, you can get whatever you’re after faster by parking and walking inside. Usually, I make note of the last vehicle in line. As I said, 95% of the time, I’m back in my car before that vehicle reaches the window.
Just south of there, Richfield, has many drive thru fast food places that are doing quite well and employ people.
The Taco Bell and Wendy’s on Broadway and 35W do quite well with their drive thru business.
Sure they’re profitable, so are Walmarts with sprawling parking lots. That doesn’t mean that they’re good land use in a dense city environment. The same lot that the burger king could be turned into multifamily housing with dozens of units with ground level retail space that could house a restaurant that adds a lot more to the area than a burger king ever could.
Good for them.
The franchisee abandoned this store, as well as 8 others.
Only 2 of them were in Minneapolis.
Minneapolis still has many drive thru fast food places that are doing quite well and employ people.
There is a White Castle with a drive through that is mere 4 blocks from the abandoned BK location on Nicollet.
If you’re trying to use this article to slam Minneapolis, it’s not working.
Let’s put one across from your place then, Andy.
I’m glad to see a drive-thru being phased out in an urban neighborhood like this. Lines of cars spilling into the street aren’t good for through traffic, and cars crossing sidewalks to enter drive-thrus can be hazardous for pedestrians. They may be fine in suburban areas that are more auto-centric in design, but not in the city.
Good to hear it’s finally going away. Even if it was open, I’d choose Ramen Kazama across the street every time.
The legacy of Cherryhomes lives on.. of course she lobbied on behalf of Burger King. She also fought bravely for payday loan rip-off places, and presided over the destruction of thousands and thousands of affordable homes in Minneapolis.
I suppose lobbying is her “real” work, it’s lasted much longer than the city council membership which led her to these lucrative connections.
Some people wonder why there’s so much cynicism about politicians these days. When people like Jackie Cherryhomes or Tom Bakk leave their supposedly honest positions and become wealthy lobbyists working for huge industries like developers, big tobacco, mining companies etc. it’s easy to be cynical. At least there are neighbors like Adam Wysopal around to help.. he’s right, it’s a great neighborhood.
And if Ramen Kazama wanted a drive through?
If I am going to buy a hamburger (or ramen) and I am driving to the location, I will need to cross a sidewalk to either park or go thru their drive thru and then cross another sidewalk on the way out.
The theme here seems to be:
“Were all for local restaurants, we just do not want them to be too successful”.
Minneapolis needs success, ie: people engaging in street level commerce, to overcome current problems.
Ditto. I regularly used the Blaisdale Y during those years of the regin of Good King Burger, including the transition to abandonment. I know the story, which is good btw, is to stir us up about drive-thrus, but … Ramen Kazama is fantastic (subarashii desu). Furthmore, the Y and the 18 bus, nearby restaurants on 35th, and access to I-35W – these attributes make it a desirable neighborhood as evidenced by the boom in “Luxury Apartments “. But back to the story: the BK franchisee gave up the ghost due to the downward trend of that brand; anyway, they left! So use the space well.
What is wrong with a drive thru? An entire article about stopping them and I couldn’t figure out why it is so important to stop a restaurant from having one.
space and traffic, I guess (back ups in high-density areas). There are only so many things a writer can cover in one article. Existing drive-thrus are grandfathered-in, if I understand correctly.
A lot depends on the immediate neighborhood. For example, the Caribou drive thru on Cedar at Minnehaha Parkway often impacts traffic on Cedar during the morning commute. By comparison, the McDonalds and Burger King drive thrus on Hiawatha (46th & 42nd) are pretty innocuous.
The McDonalds and Burger King drive-thrus on Hiawatha empty on to side streets and not the main thoroughfare. They are much better designs.
Drive thrus have a lot of negative impacts, which are more pronounced in urban settings. They contribute to congestion because there’s not enough space for cars to queue, so they spill out onto the street. They contribute to air pollution due to idling vehicles and inducing driving. Drive thrus are noisy because of idling engines and the intercom (when the Nicollet BK was open, I could hear the intercom while inside my house). They are bad for pedestrians due to a combination of multiple curb cuts and drivers not paying attention to people. They are a poor use of land. In the case of the Nicollet BK, someone could build a 6 story, mixed-use building by right without any need for variances. A 6 story building would generate significantly more property tax, provide housing, and you could fit several restaurants/commercial spaces on the ground floor. I view allowing drive thrus in Minneapolis similarly to the mistake of allowing the dumb K-mart to be built and blocking Nicollet – they were decisions from another era of Minneapolis that (thankfully) we are moving away from.
How about “order on the app” dedicated parking spaces?
Too often government overreach, sloth, infighting allows urban blight to linger for years. The 3rd Precinct House and the Nicollet BK as prime examples.
The loss of critical mass is too late to recover. Brookdale as an example.
What’s the greater evil? Sure, the property abandoned for years is indeed a blight; but perhaps a drive-thru in operation for years/decades is worse. Not to mention the BK broiler smell. In certain wind conditions I get it from the one on Hiawatha. It is vile.
We lived in that area for a number of years. It is very nice. A three or four story apartment building featuring low income or section 8 voucher rentals would allow more in the city to embrace diversity.
If diversity is the need for the neighborhood, 1 million dollar condos would be needed.
I can appreciate and support the need for affordable housing, the idea that it adds to the diversity of the neighborhood here is a reach.
Does the drive-thru ban extend beyond restaurants? Are new pharmacies or banks allowed to have them?