Downtown State College McDonald’s Closes. Here’s Why

McDonald’s in downtown State College has closed, but it may be returning as part of a new building at the same location in the next few years.

Signs posted over the weekend on the doors of the fast food chain’s restaurant at 442 E. College simply stated, “This location is closed. Please visit one of our other stores.”

Upon learning of the closure, a crowd gathered outside the shuttered eatery on Sunday night for a “vigil.”

Plans submitted by Landmark Properties to the borough in 2022 call for a 12-story, mixed-use high-rise to be constructed at the corner of East College Avenue and Sowers Street. The project will involve the demolition of the McDonald’s building, the Keystone Building at 444 E. College Ave. and the Armenara Office Building at 111 Sowers Street.

Design renderings for The Mark showed McDonald’s would be located on the ground floor of the new building.

McDonald’s Corporation completed the sale of its building to The Mark at State College LLC in mid-October for $12 million. The Armenara Building, where ground-floor tenant Are U Hungry? closed earlier this year, and the Keystone Building were sold in late September to The Mark at State College for $5.4 million.

Landmark is currently working on a final plan submission, State College Planning Director Ed LeClear told StateCollege.com. A Landmark representative has not yet responded to a request for comment on when the final plan would be submitted or when construction is expected to begin. Other mixed-use high-rise buildings recently constructed in State College have taken about two years to complete.

Plans for the new building include 19,955 square feet of commercial space on the first and second floors, and a design rendering showed McDonald’s at the same street-level corner location it currently occupies. McDonald’s media relations has not responded to an inquiry about whether it still intends to open a location in the new building.

The third through 12th floors will have 167 apartment units ranging from studios to five-bedrooms, for a total of 473 beds.

The development will be the last new 12-story student apartment building for the foreseeable future in State College following a zoning change approved after plans for The Mark were submitted in 2022.

McDonald’s has five other locations in Centre County, including three in the State College area at 1615 N. Atherton St., 2167 S. Atherton St. and 2821 E. College Ave.