Work is under way on rebuilding the longtime McDonald’s restaurant on Rainier Avenue that was destroyed in a spectacular fire in December.

The nearly 4,000-square-foot restaurant is expected to open in late September, according to George Kobory, the project superintendent for Spectrum Enterprises of Lakewood, which is building the restaurant.

Kobory also came to the scene of the fire to build a security fence around the destroyed restaurant.

The restaurant will seat about 75 people, he said.

The three-alarm fire destroyed the McDonald’s built in 1967. It has been the scene of countless teen and family gathering and a key stop by young and old on the long-gone cavalcade of cars on the Renton Loop.

Damage at the time was estimated at $1.7 million; no one was injured in the fire.

The fire came during the massive storms of early December and was considered storm-related because of a power outage, city officials said at the time.