- McDonald’s has purchased the Gateway Church building in Hamilton for a new restaurant.
- The Victoria Street site, which has an RV of $9.2m, will be used by the church until November.
- The restaurant is due to open in 2026 after the consenting and planning phase.
McDonald’s is returning to Hamilton CBD after snapping up a landmark Hamilton church for its newest restaurant.
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The fast-food giant has bought the Gateway Church building on the corner of Victoria Street and Liverpool Street for an undisclosed price.
The 5122sqm site at 950 Victoria Street has an RV of $9.2 million.
Gateway Church confirmed the sale on its Facebook page, telling followers the church would continue to use the premises until the end of November.
McDonald’s last had a restaurant on Victoria Street in Hamilton’s CBD in the 1990s through to the early 2000s. Photo / Hamilton Libraries
McDonald’s spokesman Simon Kenny said the restaurant brand had been looking for a suitable site for a new restaurant in central Hamilton for some time and was pleased to have completed the purchase.
Staff were now working on the consenting and planning phase and planned to open the restaurant in 2026. The old building would be demolished and a new purpose-built restaurant put in its place.
“Our local franchisees continue to invest in existing restaurants, including the current rebuild of our Hamilton East restaurant, and the Victoria St site will provide customers with a convenient new option in the city.”
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The last time McDonald’s had a presence in Hamilton CBD was in the early 2000s.
Gateway Church listed the property for sale in August last year after purchasing the Audi and Skoda showrooms on Grey Street, in Hamilton East, for $14m. It plans to complete a major fit-out of the car showrooms and host its first service there in February 2026.
Colliers Hamilton director Alan Pracy, who brokered the deal for 950 Victoria Street, said McDonald’s had shown interest in the site early on, but there had also been enquiries from other owner-occupiers and residential developers.
He told OneRoof that large corner sites were “reasonably rare” in the city.
“It will be positive to see a nice, high-quality new building at that end of Victoria Street,” he said.
The three-storey building at 950 Victoria Street was originally built for Woolworths in 1965. Gateway Church bought it in the mid-1980s and carried out extensive upgrades, including the addition of two new floors.
McDonald’s previously operated a restaurant on Hamilton’s main street in the 1990s through to the early 2000s. Locals have fond memories of visiting the Victoria Street restaurant during that period, with many at the time referring to the nearby Claudelands Bridge as the McDonald’s Bridge.
McDonald’s recently opened a 75-seat restaurant in the city at Ruakura Inland Port in 2022. The old Hamilton East McDonald’s restaurant was bulldozed earlier this year and is due to reopen by September.
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