Cornucopia Opens at Site of the Former McDonald's

Editor's note: This version corrects the spelling of Cornucopia.

Standing on the freshly paved new entrance to Cornucopia on Sloane Avenue, the organization’s director wryly says that people still pull in at what used to be a fast-food drive-thru.

Confused, the would-be McDonald’s patrons still wait near an abandoned menu board — surrounded by new, perfectly manicured gardens — for someone to take their order.

“Maybe they’re looking for an organic Big Mac,” said Scott Duennes, who’s overseen the $1.8 million project to revamp the property. “I think they think it’s a McDonald’s that being renovated.” 

Cornucopia has taken over the property where the Golden Arches were once planted on Sloane Avenue for decades. Cornucopia, the nonprofit that owns the natural foods market, will use the building as a vocational training center, kitchen and catering center for Nature’s Bin, which provides employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

“This building was certainly a rehabilitation project of its own,” Duennes said. “It will give us a lot more space.”

He said the store’s current training/baking/kitchen space will increase from 600 square feet to more than 3,500 square feet at the new location. 

“It’s not a restaurant and it’s not a drive-thru,” Duennes added. “It enhances our ability to train people and fulfill the mission of the organization.”

A special ribbon-cutting is slated to take place today.

The only remnants of the McDonald’s after the “de-arching” process — a practice of removing everything with a McDonald’s trademark — are the tile floor in the kitchen and the order counter now serving as a packaging station.

The deed restriction with McDonald’s states that neither food nor beverages may be sold from the location. So, don’t pull in looking for a latte at the drive-thru.

In what used to be the drive-thru lane, Cornucopia will grow herbs and vegetables to be used by chefs in the kitchen.

Lowe’s selected Cornucopia as the Community Hero Project, meaning that the home-improvement chain provided all sorts of help — including mulch, herbs and labor for the landscape.

The new space also boasts a spacious new conference room, eliminating the need to continue leasing space at Lakewood Center North.

“Because of how cramped it is over there, we could only train one person at a time," Duennes said. "Now, we will be able to train six people at a time. It’s a win-win. We have so much more capacity now."

The project was expected to cost $1.1 million, but the costs ballooned to about $1.8 million because of “unexpected expenses.”

“We’re continuing to fund raise,” Duennes said. “We’ve gotten tremendous support from the community and from the city. 

"The reality is that this building would have been torn down and you’d have almost an acre of asphalt.”