WASHINGTON BUSINESS JOURNAL: TGI Fridays has culled the herd in Greater Washington. TGI Fridays has shuttered five D.C.-area restaurants in two weeks, four in Northern Virginia and one in suburban Maryland.
The restaurant chain announced Wednesday the closure of four “underperforming” D.C.-area locations — Woodbridge, Manassas and Springfield in Northern Virginia and Bowie in Prince George’sCounty. All of those locations have now been wiped from the company’s website, as were restaurants in Columbia, Maryland, and Fredericksburg, Virginia.
The closures, among 36 across the U.S., leave 11 Fridays restaurants circling the Capital Beltway. In a release, Dallas-based TGI Fridays said more than 1,000 transfer opportunities would be offered to existing U.S. employees, representing over 80% of total impacted staff.
“Unfortunately, we’ve made the difficult decision to close your nearest TGI Fridays location on 1/2/2024. It’s been our privilege to serve your community,” Fridays said in generic emails to customers of the four shuttered Greater Washington restaurants.
A fifth TGIF, at 12249 Fair Lakes Promenade in Fairfax County, closed last month, to be replaced by brunch-centric restaurant First Watch, as I first reported it would in July. Susan Bourgeois and Kyle Gamber of Rappaport, which manages and leasesthe shopping center, represented First Watch in the lease negotiations and Christian Kingston of Rappaport represented the landlord.
First Watch is expected to open in summer 2024 following renovations to the building, a spokesperson with the growing Bradenton, Florida-based chain said. Fridays had operated in thatspace for roughly 15 years.
Rappaport President Henry Fonvielle confirmed his company is actively leasing the 6,830-square-foot Springfield storefront, part of the Springfield Commons shopping center on Frontier Drive acrossfrom Springfield Town Center that Rappaport also manages and leases. The center recently welcomed a Pure Hockey store in space neighboring TGI Fridays that had been vacated by Pier 1 years ago.
The Manassas Fridays, meanwhile, will be replaced by a Starbucks. The Prince William Board of County Supervisors in September approved drive-through facilities in connection with the new restaurant at 7401 Sudley Road. Sudley Restaurant Holdings LLC,the property owner, “will entirely remove the existing building and construct a new building in its place,” per a staff report.
The Bowie Fridays is located at 15207 Major Lansdale Blvd. and the Woodbridge location at Kimco Realty’s Smoketown Station. It is unclear what will happen to either space.
The mass closure, and the sale of eight previouslycorporate-owned locations in the Northeast to former Fridays CEO Ray Blanchette, is all “part of the brand’s ongoing growth strategy,” the company said Wednesday in a release.
“By strengthening our franchise model and closingunderperforming stores, we are creating an unprecedented opportunity for Fridays to drive forward its vision for the future,” Ray Risley, the company’s chief operating officer, said in a statement.
