It all started with a visit to an empty lot on Pine Street during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Edwin Infante first thought the land might be a good spot for a McDonald’s restaurant.
He was scouting out possible locations with staff from the McDonald’s real estate department when they happened across the site, a corner lot at the intersection of Pine Street and Sullivan Avenue.
“It was empty. There was nothing,” Infante told ThoroldToday. "It seemed like a good fit to set up the McDonald's here."
Infante spoke with other businesses owners in the city and there was something he noticed.
“There’s such a sense of people feeling so proud to be in Thorold,” Infante said.
Council approved the project back in February 2023 and construction began in January of this year. On Friday morning, the hamburger restaurant finally opened for business, serving up Big Macs or Egg McMuffins to hungry patrons.
A day earlier, as construction workers were putting the final touches to the exterior or the building, city officials, representatives from the Thorold BIA and the media were invited to get a sneak peek of the restaurant.
Thorold Mayor Terry Ugulini said Thorold’s rapid growth – as the eighth fastest growing municipality in Canada – made it a great place for Infante to set up shop.
“You picked the right place to open up a new business, and we welcome you with open arms and we're so excited that you're going to be employing a lot of local people from our communities as well,” Ugulini said.
Infante, meanwhile, said it is expected that the restaurant will create upwards of 100 jobs, with about 20 per cent being full-time positions.
And while serving up burgers and fries to eager diners is one thing, Infante says there’s so much more to running a McDonald's restaurant.
In fact, the company has been a driving force in his life. Infate operated his first McDonald’s in his native Venezuela before immigrating to Canada in 2003. It wasn’t long before he was back with McDonald’s when he was offered ownership of two Toronto locations.
Eventually, however, he wanted his family to be in a place where the pace wasn’t so fast. He wound up in Niagara and hasn’t looked back since.
“That makes me feel proud of something that is different, something more like a family,” he said. "That's the way I feel. This community is like a family. And having my family here and being an immigrant, it makes us feel like we are at home. This community is fantastic.”
Today, Infante, through his company, Dendres Corp., owns a total of eight McDonald’s locations in Niagara.
Caitlyn McMillan, People Culture lead for Dendres Corp., said the company is excited to set up shop in Thorold.
“Edwin’s been well known in the St. Catharines community as a McDonald's owner-operator, so we were very, very happy when he announced that he did get the Thorold location,” she said.
As for residents, McMillan said the feedback they've been getting as construction progressed has been positive.
“They were so excited to have a McDonald's finally in Thorold,” she said.
McMillan expects the new location to continue the dining trend they have found in other locations owned by Dendres.
“The morning time periods are when our dining rooms are the fullest, because you have those groups that come out every day, grab a coffee, grab a muffin.”
Lunch and dinner are more grab-and-go centred with people grabbing something to eat while at work or hitting up the drive-thru on the way home to pick up something for dinner.
The restaurant will host a fundraiser for the Ronald McDonald Room at the Marotta Family Hospital in St. Catharines from Nov. 15-22 and an official grand opening will be held on Nov. 23.
