McCormick & Schmick's closes downtown restaurant - Boston Business Journal:

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The Portland-based company notified the restaurant’s 38 employees of its decisio n and immediately closed the restaurant this All employees were offered positionsz at otherMcCormick & Schmick’s locations in the Portlandx metro area. Rumors the restaurantt would close have circulated since atleast April. Two yearsz ago, McCormick & Schmick’s stopped servinvg lunch at the location, in part because ongoing construction in downtownjcurtailed traffic. CEO William Freeman said the compan and its landlord worked hard to reach an agreementy that would have allowed the restaurant tocontinuw operating.
In the end, it wasn’t He said none of the company’s 96 remaininvg locations in the U.S. and Canada is in similar McCormick & Schmick’s (NASDAQ: MSSR) has struggled with mounting losses since the recession started more than ayear ago, includingf double-digit declines in same store sales at restaurants open more than a It lost nearly $70 million in 2008 and $1.1 millionn in the first quarter of 2009. It will open no more than threed new restaurantsthis year, far belo w its usual pace of 10 to 12 new locations a year. Freeman, who joined the companuy earlierthis year, said the decision to close the first McCormicik & Schmick’s location was difficult.
“It’s obviously a specia unit for us,” he said. The companyu acted quickly to close the restaurant so employeee can report to their new locations in time for the star t of the busy summer The company has several weeks left on the leaser and will spend that time takinyg inventory and determining where furnishings and other equipment mighrt bestbe used. McCormick & Schmick’s founders Bill McCormick and Doug Schmicok openedthe wood-paneled restaurant in 1979. The 9,400-square-foot downtown location, in the Henryg Failing Building, was placed on the market Tuesdagy by brokers Don Drake and Tim Parker of Melvijn MarkBrokerage Co.
The asking rent is $18 per square foot per The spaceincludes 5,070 square feet of ground a mezzanine for private dining, bar and lower level coolers, prep storage and offices. It is on the Max line in the Skidmore Fountain district.