The region’s oldest McDonald’s location, on Northeast Third Street in Bend, is being demolished to make way for a new, slightly smaller building, which will feature two drive-thru lanes outside and new hardware and software inside.

Bill and Jeannine Bloom opened the original location there in 1973. Their daughter, Nanette, started her own franchise in 1989, establishing a McDonald’s on Southeast Third Street in Bend. And in 1990, she bought out her parents’ restaurant, bringing her total to two locations.

Now the franchise — based in Bend and known as McDonald’s of Bend, Sisters and La Pine — comprises seven locations, said co-owner Mick Bittler, Nanette’s husband, and the nature of McDonald’s business has evolved.

“Of course, it’s always with mixed emotions to tear down a building that holds so many wonderful memories,” co-owner Nanette Bittler said. “It’s not just memories, for (our) family, but so many memories for people in the community were made in that restaurant.”

But on the upside, she said of customers, “their needs have changed a lot since 1973.”

The new building taking the place of the old one, she continued, will be able to “take better care of the needs of our customers today.”

About 70 percent of business at the location is drive-thru.

Her mother was not as positive about the demolition.

“She drove by (on) the first day (of demolition, and) she started crying,” Nanette Bittler said of her mother.

The old building closed for business Jan. 29, to allow for the removal, recycling and selling of certain elements of the old structure, Mick Bittler said. He said he and his wife aim to recycle at least 70 percent of materials at the site.

Metals, wood products and concrete are among the recyclable materials, said Scott Jackson, a project manager for Keizer-based Rich Duncan Construction, which has the contract for the demolition and construction.

Some items in the old restaurant — kitchen equipment such as ovens, for example — will be used in the new one, after being recalibrated and cleaned, he said.

“Items like that — there’s certainly no reason to buy a new one; there’s certainly no reason to throw out basic equipment,” Jackson said.

Jackson said the level of recycling going on at the site is not surprising.

Exterior demolition began Monday, Mick Bittler said.

The building to come will be equipped with new computers, which will run software with pictures of food customers can order, he said. The software will improve efficiency at the counter, he added.

All 50 or so employees at the old location have been assigned to others in the franchise, and they will all be asked to return when the new building opens, along with 15 new employees for an assortment of work assignments, Nanette Bittler said.

The Bittlers hope to hold the grand opening of the new McDonald’s building by Memorial Day.

“It’s an aggressive goal,” Mick Bittler said, “but that’s what we’re really going to try to accomplish.”

Bittler declined to provide the project’s cost.