The 54th Street Grill and Bar restaurant, 2236 Michigan Ave., in Arnold will close on Sunday, June 11.
Michael Norsworthy, president of Kellan Restaurant Management, a Kansas City-based company that owns the restaurant chain, said the driving factor to close the Arnold location is geography.
“The biggest problem that Arnold has, and this was our mistake, is it is so close to the south (St. Louis) County location,” he said. “We are getting quite a bit of cannibalization with two stores that close. The South County location is currently a better performer. We think that market (South St. Louis County) has more long-term viability. We decided to not renew our lease at the Arnold location.”
The Arnold restaurant is just more than 8 miles away from the 54th Street restaurant at 5310 S. Lindbergh Blvd. in the Marcus Ronnie’s Cinema plaza.
“It was really more of a self-induced wound on our part by placing these locations too close to each other,” Norsworthy said. “The locations should be no closer than 15 miles, unless there is some huge density in a given area.”
The 54th Street in Arnold opened on March 17, 2008, Norsworthy said.
He said about 80 to 90 employees work at the Arnold location, and about 75 percent of those employees will relocate to either the restaurant on Lindbergh Boulevard or the location at 17395 Chesterfield Airport Road in Chesterfield.
“Most of our employees took our offer to transfer to different locations in the St. Louis market,” Norsworthy said.
He said it was not an easy decision to close the Arnold location, adding that the company invested between $3 million and $3.5 million in the building.
“It is always very difficult to close a location,” he said. “But you have to look at these things at what is the best long-term decision for the company.
“We welcome all of the loyal customers we have had in Arnold to drive a few miles up the road because we have a location there where we would love to serve them.”
Norsworthy said there are no more restaurant closures in the St. Louis area.
“This is a targeted closing,” he said. “All of the rest of the locations in the St. Louis market, we are very happy with. I don’t anticipate any additional closures in the St. Louis market.
“If there was 15 miles between Arnold and South County, we would probably keep it open. We made a mistake.”
