Abandoned - McBarge

[Music] what's up guys my name is Jake welcome to abandoned episode 31 this of course is the show where we talk about some of the most interesting abandoned places in the world Vancouver is one of Canada's largest cities a city known for its beautiful views extravagant condos luscious parks being a popular cruise destination and much much more the city is also known for its hosting of Expo 86 a World's Fair event which was the last to be held in North America on the other side of the city where cruise ships called her home port down the river about six miles as a relic from the past Expo a fast food restaurant like no other friendship 500 or better known as the Mick barge way back in 1985 Vancouver was preparing for Expo 86 the world exposition on transportation and communication the World's Fair was set to take a hundred and sixty acres of land and like all World Fair events multiple different pavilions and buildings would be constructed on the land McDonald's was set to have several of the restaurants in the expo specifically five of them most of them being the basic generic restaurants however McDonald's had one planned like no other designed by naval architecture firm Robert Alan McDonald's was building a two-story floating restaurant called friendship 500 the reason why it was given the 500 name was because it was the 500th McDonald's restaurant in Canada though technically it wasn't the only floating McDonald's in the world even though dates are a little skewed sometime in the early 80s the fast-food chain opened a riverboat restaurant in st. Louis and sometime in the early 2000s that later closed with 12 million dollars collectively being spent on all five new restaurants friendship 500 was launched and taken upriver to serve guests of Expo 86 it was rumored though that the final cost of friendship 500 was around eight million dollars along with the fair the Mick barge opened in May of 1986 it was a hundred and eighty seven feet long featured two storeys of dining areas and was able to seat around 390 people friendship 500 was located on the far west portion of the fair anchored adjacent to the Malaysia pavilion people absolutely loved the restaurant and collectively throughout all the other McDonald's restaurants in the expo it was one of the most popular and profitable in fact throughout the entire fair's run in 1986 the restaurant had sold more hamburgers than any other McDonald's restaurant in British Columbia this was probably because of the design to this floating restaurant just being so unique it's early to mid 80s modern design was eye-catching enough along with the fact that it was on the water the interior was also something to be desired as it was a new look for the fast food chain with wood floors framed art and plants throughout it was McDonald's mid-eighties campaign to enhance their image as their restaurants being a more enjoyable quality experience and this proved to be very effective as French of 500 was extremely popular in the fair as British Columbia was entering its winter season the official closure of Expo 86 had come on October 13 1986 now the fact that the McDonald's restaurant was floating wasn't just a gimmick the idea behind it was actually pretty clever once the Faire ran through its six-month lifespan the barge could just be moved to another destination this made the initial investment of the alleged eight million dollars much more justified however as Expo 86 was being demolished the Mick barge was still trying to locate a spot for it to travel to and as 1987 came in friendship 500 continued to anchor in its original spot closed even though McDonald's had negotiated a 40-year lease Vancouver's City Council denied MacDonald's request to continue operating post Expo 86 McDonald's continued to search for new potential places to dock the barge however to no avail as all of their proposals were turned down the barge continued to sit in the former Expo 86 location for another four years keeping the barge they're closed cost the company around one hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year just in maintenance expenses the former fairgrounds land was eventually sold to developers and of course they wanted the barge gone so in July of 1991 McDonald's had given up fighting for the future of the barge and now had to find a place to dock it while it was in limbo so friendship 500 was taken up and around Vancouver down the river and anchored offshore in the Burrard Inlet anchored only seven miles from its original dock resting about 200 feet offshore of an oil refinery the 187 footlong restaurant was left floating there indefinitely and abandoned despite the rapid deterioration of friendship 500 it was still considered to be an asset and was soon sold for McDonald's to several new owners despite this though the vessel remained untouched and abandoned for years other than the removal of the interior furniture and some fixtures the interior of the restaurant remained untouched it wasn't until 2003 when Marvel and New Line Cinema had rented the barge as a filming location for their upcoming film blade Trinity the night stalkers headquarters is barge that was a restaurant for Expo 86 and it's been sitting out off the coast of Vancouver for years and I got to thinking what if we drag this barge into port and turned it into our night stalkers Laird it's just a shell with Windows and we're putting in all the technology all the weapons the armory everything they night stalkers do to slay vampires the movie was released in December of 2004 and while I've never seen it from what I've heard it wasn't really that great not much of the barge was changed for the filming however some past relics from the former McDonald's were obviously taken out and some walls were repainted the exterior remained mostly the same and by 2004 the Mick barge had returned to its original anchored spot in the Burrard Inlet the former restaurant was once again left abandoned with the future still unknown it wasn't until 2009 when a man who bought the make barge back in 1999 Howard Nikken had big and expensive plans for the former restaurants the plan for friendship 500s future was to bring it into an extensive rehabilitation and dock it in a town called Mission British Columbia it's about 40 miles from Vancouver and part of the development was to make it the centerpiece of a ten million dollar floating complex docks would wrap around the base of friendship 500 with light commercial and various food offerings inside including a high quality restaurant it would have been called sturgeons on the fraser named after the river it was on as 2010 came in though the proposal was still awaiting approval by City Council and soon after the concept was rejected on grounds that floatplanes would produce too much noise so once again hope for the mick barge to ever be used again was kinda low by 2011 friendship 500 was renamed to Seabourn - and listed for sale on pacific boat brokers comm for six hundred and eighty thousand dollars however with no sale the barge continued to float abandoned in the same place it has for the majority of its life with multiple broken windows and exterior doors even being left open the immense amount of moisture inside the structure had been taking its toll on the walls and floors mold and moss had been thriving on the former restaurant and vandalism was becoming a problem the interior had its copper and valuables stripped from what was left and kids started tagging the inside and outside of the barge every once in a while some measures would be taken to prevent this with boards covering the broken windows as well as fences with barred wire on them being placed on easily accessible spots on the barge as a few years passed this didn't really stop much though as friendship 500 was becoming well known as a local eyesore and as more time passed concerns began to arise on the possibility of the barge even sinking by 2013 the entire structure was listing however the barges owner claimed that friendship 500 was built to last 90 years and that it had multiple watertight compartments finally news broke in 2015 that the mick barge would see a future use despite its extremely run-down appearance the dream Howard Meekin had to see Mick barge in use once again never left him the plan was by late 2015 the barge would be moved up to a maintenance dock in Maple Ridge British Columbia the barge would then undergo a four million dollar renovation for an unknown purpose in late 2000 fifteen the exterior was majorly cleaned up with a fresh coat of paint over the massive graffiti and whiteboards over the broken windows and as promised on December 22nd 2015 two tugboats took friendship 500 for a 52 mile journey through and out of Burrard Inlet around Vancouver and down through the Fraser River to its new destination the new purpose of the barge though remained unknown as Howard had signed a nondisclosure agreement the only information the public was given about the project was that it would be ready by 2016 but they never met that deadline so what is the status of it now well as early quarter 2 of 2017 friendship 500 is still docked for renovations most of the interior has been gutted but work seems slow overall I actually have talked to an individual who is involved with the renovation and confirmed to me that the project is still waiting for the necessary funds as for the original Expo 86 point the Mik barge was docked in well since 1991 the land has now become a mixture of parkland and condominiums I mean of course it's Vancouver Mick barge was an icon of Expo 86 it was loved by thousands for its unique features and forward-thinking design it's been 28 years abandoned 24 of which in the Burrard Inlet aimlessly floating with no real future thankfully a plan had been set to have this historical unique icon saved it's pretty rare to see something that old and deteriorate to the point it was at and still be saved even though the future seems unknown for us I truly believe the man behind its future really does care about preserving this icon maybe it'll be a museum for Expo 86 or maybe it will return to a restaurant who knows maybe it'll be a ball pit a ball pit you want it to be a big floating ball I'd like to thank audible for sponsoring this episode of abandoned since I was making the episode on the mcbarns I heard I should go out and watch the new 2016 film the founder which tells the story of Ray Kroc who deliberately took control of McDonald's and turned it into a corporation behind the back of its founders it's a pretty great film and I suggest you go watch it but afterwards I found myself wanting to look into it more so right now I'm listening to the audiobook ray and Joan the man who made the McDonald's fortune and the woman who gave it away it's written by Lisa Napoli and explores the story between the two people and the relationship it's pretty interesting and I suggest you go check it out but if you're looking for something a little different audible has a huge and vast selection of audiobooks so if you want to go check out what they have to offer go to audible.com slash BSF once you use the code you can start your 30-day free trial it's a service that I've legitimately use and believe in so when you're supporting them you're in return supporting abandoned

Channel: Bright Sun Films

Views: 5,101,755

Rating: 4.8104191 out of 5

Keywords: ABANDONED 31, abandoned, bright sun films, mcbarge, friendship 500, vancouver, Bc, british columbia, creepy, jake williams, abandoned video, urban exploration, condo, abandoned ship, abandoned boat, mcdonalds, abandoned fast food, abandoned restaurant, restaurant boat, mcdonalds floating, floating fast food, mcbarge abandoned, mcbarge creepy, floating mcdonalds abandoned, expo 86, old

Id: W9mc4PsXU5E

Length: 12min 4sec (724 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 14 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/HeyHeyItsRon]

Actually, I ate on the one in St Louis. https://www.riverfronttimes.com/foodblog/2017/05/04/once-a-floating-mcdonalds-brought-golden-arches-to-the-banks-of-the-arch

[u/awizardsleeves]

Has it McSunken

[u/pjizy]

Such a great series

[u/mmeska]

Best restaurant name

[u/laserjubilees]

Reminds of the Simpsons when there was a krusty burger on a oil rig .

[u/teddybearsuplex]

Looks like a new Fallout DLC.

[u/TroyCR]

Expo 86 in Vancouver

[u/VaguerCrusader]

ball pit, I like how they ask the kid for clarification he pauses for half a second just to be sure and is like "yeah, a floating ball pit would work just fine"