Burger King Celebrates The Dedication Of Its New World Headquarters Building

Burger King Corporation announced the official dedication and grand opening of its new World Headquarters, located at the Waterford Office complex at 5505 Blue Lagoon Drive. The Waterford building was dedicated to co-founders and Restaurant visionaries James W. McLamore and David Edgerton who founded Burger King of Miami, Inc. in 1954, which became Burger King Corporation in 1972.

"We are proud of our commitment to remain in South Florida, where we began 48 years ago," said John Dasburg, chairman, chief executive officer & president, Burger King Corporation. "This new headquarters building is very efficient and is reducing our costs significantly, while providing us with the latest in technology."

In the ceremony, a bronze plaque in honor of the founders was unveiled in the lobby by Nancy McLamore, widow of James McLamore, Dave Edgerton, co- founder, and Whitt McLamore, son of James McLamore. The ceremony was held in conjunction with the BURGER KING/McLamore Foundation Board meeting. The Burger King/McLamore Foundation was established in late 1997 with the primary mission of providing educational opportunities to deserving youth in the spirit of Burger King Corporation co-founder, the late James W. McLamore. As a collaborative effort among McLamore family members, North American franchisees, system vendors, the Burger King Corporation and Burger King Restaurants of Canada, the Foundation seeks to give back to the local communities in which BURGER KING restaurants do business.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas and County Commissioner Rebeca Sosa were also on hand at the ceremony to announce the renaming of a portion of 57th Avenue to Whopper Way. Burger King Corporation subsequently announced that the Company will soon change the official address of its World Headquarters from 5505 Blue Lagoon Drive to ONE WHOPPER WAY, Miami, Florida.

The Burger King Corporation office move began in July 2002 and occurred in eight phases with approximately 600 employees and contractors relocated to the World Headquarters at Waterford and another 200 employees and contractors to the Dadeland Towers, located at 9300 South Dadeland Boulevard. Burger King Corporation occupies eight floors, or 170,000, square feet at the World Headquarters building at Waterford and four floors, or 45,000 square feet, at the Dadeland facility. Both facilities have been outfitted with significant technological improvements and computer infrastructure upgrades, including an integrated, multi-purpose network system, which utilizes a converged data, voice and video network.

Burger King Corporation was founded in 1954 and created the American icon, the HOME OF THE WHOPPER®, in 1957. The company and its franchisees operate more than 11,450 restaurants in all 50 states and 58 countries and territories around the world, with 91% o BURGER KING® restaurants owned and operated by independent franchisees. Since the company's founding in Miami in 1954, the BURGER KING® brand has become recognized for great flame-broiled taste and HAVE IT YOUR WAY® food customization. BURGER KING® restaurants were recently voted "Best Place for Burgers"*. In the fiscal year ending June 30, 2002, the BURGER KING® system had system-wide sales of $11.3 billion.