Restaurant closures point to heated competition

As new restaurants open along Battlefield Road, mostly in the expanding Battlefield Market Place, others are closing. Tony Roma’s, 600 E. Battlefield, and James River Grill, 1155 E. Battlefield, closed within days of each other in mid-July.

Meanwhile, other restaurants are opening and thriving in their new environments.

Logan’s Roadhouse, a steakhouse chain based in Lebanon, Tenn., is building on Battlefield, less than a block from James River Grill. It’s also right next to Battlefield Market Place, 900 E. Battlefield, which features six eateries – Fish, Buffalo Wild Wings, Qdoba Mexican Grill, Bandana’s Bar-B-Q, Kaldi’s Coffeehouse and Cold Stone Creamery – that opened within the last year. Bojangles’ Chicken opened earlier this year at 1008 E. Battlefield Road.

James River Grill owner Bill Dreiling said there is a direct connection to his restaurant’s 20 percent revenue dip since January.

“Most everybody – in any community, not just in Springfield – is going to try something new,” said Dreiling, who also is a former partner in Trolley’s downtown. “It doesn’t necessarily matter whether they matched our style or our concept, somebody’s going to try it and that somebody isn’t coming to the James River Grill that time.”

Dreiling thinks Springfield’s restaurant market is too saturated. With 528 licensed restaurants, according to the city’s business licenses office, Springfield boasts 287 people per restaurant, making it one of the most restaurant-intensive cities in the nation. The statewide average is 452 people per restaurant, according to the National Restaurant Association.

“I think whoever controls the city zoning needs to put the brakes on for the good of local residents, for the mom and pop places, which is what we were,” Dreiling said. “We weren’t a chain. Nobody can withstand that sort of thing.”

But Tony Roma’s is a chain, and that didn’t prevent it from closing. The restaurant property owner – Rockbay Properties III LLC, also owner of Tony Roma’s locations in Oklahoma City, Dallas, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Texas, and Little Rock, Ark. – sold the 7,200-square-foot space July 26 to an unidentified investor group that intends to lease it as a restaurant. Real estate broker Bill Beall listed the property for about $1.5 million. Now it’s available through Ken Schwab of Wilhoit Properties for $12,500 per month, triple net.

While Tony Roma’s officials could not be reached for comment, other restaurant chains are seeing opportunities in the Springfield market.

Julie Davis, spokeswoman for the Logan’s Roadhouse chain, said her company is investing $750,000 in its 1110 E. Battlefield restaurant based on potential.

“When we choose new locations, we’re looking for places where we see other retail coming in, other restaurants coming in, where we just know there’s going to be a lot of activity and a lot of traffic,” she said. “We took a look at the Springfield market, saw it was dynamic and full of energy, and said, ‘This is going to be good.’”

Realtor Schwab said that’s not unusual.

“People like having a lot of options, so (restaurants) do well when they group together,” Schwab said. “I think that’s why you hear some towns refer to an area as ‘restaurant row.’ I think (owners) do that purposely so they can provide options.”

Logan’s Roadhouse, a wholly owned subsidiary of CBRL Group Inc. (Nasdaq: CBRL), operates 126 company-owned and 23 franchised restaurants in 19 states. CBRL also owns the Cracker Barrel chain of restaurants. The 8,000-square-foot Springfield Logan’s should be open for business in early December.

For Dreiling, traffic issues at a busy intersection also led to James River Grill’s demise. He said ingress and egress at National and Battlefield were the main problems.

“It’s on a prominent corner, one of the busiest in the city – but getting in and especially getting out at certain difficult traffic times just wasn’t convenient enough for a lot of people,” he said.

Dreiling opened James River Grill in September 1997. He doesn’t have specific plans but said he’ll remain in the food and beverage industry where he’s worked for almost 30 years.