That's a way for McDonalds to make more money for McDonalds shareholders (at the expense of a private franchisee who's well aware who he's leasing from and probably feels more secure leasing the location from someone that isn't going to turf him out for a higher rent offer from KFC). From a MCD investor point of view, them owning the real estate and earning money on that too is a good thing. It's a bit different from a hypothetical scenario in which McDonalds picks locations personally owned by McDonalds' CEO Steve Easterbrook, in a manner which probably tends to benefit him personally far more than McDonalds' shareholders.
I would suggest that MCD corp regularly turfs out established O/O's, just for the opportunity to re-sign lease agreements for better rent %s. ie renegotiating from 90's rates around 5% to 2010's rates at 10% of gross.
IMO, MCD has been administratively leveraging there negotiation position with regards to rental %s as the near sole driver of profit increases for about 18-22 years. They are very very near max sustainable extraction, which is evident by their huge offloads of corporate owned stores in the last 3 years.
Addition: They could also be positioning for a REIT transition.
