ANDREA GALABINSKI McDonald’s owner-operator Tim Frederic with a chair made from recycled components to be used in the new restaurant.

A new McDonald’s is scheduled to open its doors today, bringing 60 new jobs to the area and being part of a new business block.

It is on Bayshore Road near Slater Road, across from the soon-to-be-opened Publix Supermarket and near CVS, Walgreens and Valero.

“This block should be a new cornerstone in town,” said owner Timothy Frederic. “Publix is also targeted to open in August.”

He said he chose a contemporary design for the building, and the store will feature digital menu boards and green components.

“This is a new design for a McDonald’s,” he said. “I told them (corporate planners) I wanted Florida – we have lime greens and oranges.” Some of his lime green chairs are made from recycled items.

“This one was made out of 110 recycled Coke bottles,” he said. “From an environmental standpoint also, our lighting is LED.”

The restaurant is the first new McDonald’s built in Southwest Florida since 2007, and represents a $3 million investment by the restaurant’s owners-operators, Timothy and Fred Frederic of Frederic McDonald’s, and McDonald’s Corporation.

This will be their eighth franchise, with several in Cape Coral. They also are building another new McDonald’s in the Cape.

“We are starting construction on a new store on the corner of Burnt Store Road and Pine Island Road this week,” he said. “It takes about 65 days for the construction phase.”

Sixty people, both full- and part-time, were hired to staff the North Fort Myers restaurant and are now in training and preparing to open.

“We are still accepting applications,” he said.

At the new location, there also will be furniture with natural finishes, free WiFi, flat-screen TVs along with the digital menu boards, the first of their kind at area McDonald’s.

Approximately 250 McDonald’s statewide have been built or redesigned with new McDonald’s looks since 2006.

In 2011, McDonald’s USA announced a $1 billion investment to redesign the majority of its 14,000 U.S. restaurants by 2015. Last year, McDonald’s and its franchisees remodeled 600 restaurants and rebuilt 200 nationwide. In 2012, McDonald’s plans to improve on that total, targeting 800 new remodels, 225 rebuilds and 175 new store openings, a 24 percent total increase in renovations over the previous year.

“McDonald’s goal is to always provide the best service to our customers and that includes keeping our restaurants relevant to today’s appeal and style,” said Frederic..

What does he like best about owning McDonald’s restaurants?

“The best part is giving people the opportunity to grow, watching those who started at 16 and turn into managers,” he said.

He also enjoys a new McDonald’s program called English Under The Arches.

“We’ve had five employees who have graduated from it, where they are taught English. Some may not have good English and have a language barrier. It’s a new program spreading throughout the system.”

The store to open June 27 will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, both in-store dining and drive-thru.

It is on the corner about a block from Slater Road, at the corner of Evenwood Lane and Bayshore, 6431 Bayshore Drive, North.