http://postgazette.com/pg/08284/918980-100.stm
Hooters closes at Station Square to make room for sports bar
Friday, October 10, 2008
By Mark Belko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
After nearly 16 years at Station Square, Hooters restaurant has closed its doors.
The restaurant shut down Sunday after Station Square owner, Forest City Enterprises, exercised an option to terminate the lease.
Forest City plans to replace Hooters with Field House, a sports bar. Tom Schneck II, a Forest City spokesman at Station Square, said Field House will open next year, but did not have an exact date.
Jim Cornett, president of Cornett Hospitality, which operated the Station Square Hooters, said he wanted to keep the restaurant open until the end of the year but wasn’t given that option by Forest City.
“We’re pretty sad. I had a high level of anxiety about it,” Mr. Cornett said of the closing. “We put our heart and soul into [the restaurant].”
The closing leaves Hooters with only one restaurant in the area, in Wilkins. About 40 employees were affected by the shut down but some will move to the Wilkins location, Mr. Cornett said.
Hooters is the second establishment to close in Station Square’s east warehouse building. Margarita Mamas shut down earlier this year. A Starbucks coffee shop also will be closing at the entertainment complex but no date has been set.
More details in tomorrow’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
First published on October 10, 2008 at 2:40 pm
