Drive-Through Fast-Food Eatery in High-Rise OKd

A popular McDonald’s restaurant in Glendale will succumb to bulldozers next month to make way for a bigger McDonald’s to be built as the world’s first drive-through, fast-food restaurant in a high-rise building.

The Glendale Redevelopment Agency has granted final approval to the Howard-Platz Group of Glendale to build a $30-million, nine-story office building and theater complex at 500 N. Central Ave., the site of one of the most successful franchises in the fast-food chain.

A new restaurant, with a drive-through lane big enough for 20 or more cars to wait, will be built on the ground floor of the office building, expected to be completed in late spring of 1991, city officials said.