ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 23, 1996 TAG: 9602230041
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL
Chi-Chi's Restaurants Inc. closed its Valley View Mall location Thursday, citing poor sales and low profits.
"It was a unit that we had to re-evaluate," said Tom Stonich, vice president of human resources and training at the company's Louisville, Ky., headquarters. The chain has closed several of its other Mexican-style restaurants in the last six months for similar reasons, he said.
"It's never an easy thing for us to do," he said.
Chi-Chi's leased the building from Faison Associates, a Charlotte, N.C., commercial real estate developer that manages Valley View Mall.
The restaurant chain began negotiating about six weeks ago to terminate its lease with Faison, he said. The restaurant was closed so abruptly because the agreement they finally reached stipulated that Chi-Chi's had to be out of the building within five business days, he said.
No Faison official was available Thursday to comment on plans for the building, a stand-alone structure on the ring road around the mall.
A typical Chi-Chi's location employs about 60 full- and part-time employees, Stonich said. When a restaurant is closed, the company usually tries to transfer employees to nearby restaurants, he said. But because the chain does not operate any other eateries in the Roanoke region, hourly employees will not be relocated. The company will do whatever it can "from a local standpoint" to help these employees, Stonich said.
"In our business, it's not that difficult for any of our hourly employees to move on," he said.
Some Roanoke managers may be given the option to transfer to other Chi-Chi's locations, Stonich said.
Chi-Chi's operates 195 Mexican-style restaurants in the Midwest and along the East Coast.
LENGTH: Short : 42 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: With only five days' notice, Chi-Chi's at Valley Viewby CNBclosed Thursday.