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

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The Portland-based company notified the restaurant’s 38 employeew of its decision and immediately closed the restaurant this All employees were offered positions at otheerMcCormick & Schmick’s locations in the Portlanrd metro area. Rumors the restaurant woulfd close have circulated since atleast April. Two years ago, McCormick & Schmick’sx stopped serving lunch at the location, in part becauses ongoing construction in downtowncurtailed traffic.
CEO Willia m Freeman said the company and its landlord workecd hard to reach an agreement that would have allowefd the restaurant to continue Inthe end, it wasn’t He said none of the company’s 96 remainingf locations in the U.S. and Canada is in simila jeopardy. McCormick & Schmick’s (NASDAQ: MSSR) has struggled with mountinb losses since the recession started more than ayear ago, includingg double-digit declines in same store sales at restaurants open more than a It lost nearly $70 million in 2008 and $1.1 million in the firsft quarter of 2009. It will open no more than three new restaurantswthis year, far below its usual pace of 10 to 12 new locationa a year.
Freeman, who joined the companu earlierthis year, said the decision to closee the first McCormick Schmick’s location was “It’s obviously a special unit for he said. The company acted quickly to closde the restaurant so employees can report to their new locations in time for the start of the busysummerr season. The company has several weeksx left on the leasee and will spend that time takinh inventory and determining wheres furnishings and other equipment might best be McCormick & Schmick’s founders Bill McCormick and Doug Schmic opened the wood-paneled restaurant in 1979.
The 9,400-square-foot downtown location, in the Henry Failing Building, was placed on the market Tuesdayh by brokers Don Drake and Tim Parker of Melvi MarkBrokerage Co. The asking rent is $18 per square foot per The spaceincludes 5,070 square feet of groundc floor, a mezzanine for private dining, kitchen, bar and loweer level coolers, prep kitchen, storage and It is on the Max line in the Skidmore Fountainm district.