Hooters Is Facing Bankruptcy: What Are The Reuse Options For Its Real Estate?

A Hooters bankruptcy filing may result in the closure of its 300 restaurants; repurposed and redeveloped former Hooters buildings and sites offer examples of what could be in store for the real estate

Bankruptcy appears to be looming for the Hooters restaurant chain.

But if Hooters is unable to restructure in bankruptcy, what happens next to its ~300 restaurants — and the real estate?

Well ~150 Hooters have closed over the past decade including ~40 in 2024 alone.

Many of these properties have already been acquired, repurposed and redeveloped.

These reuses of former Hooters buildings and sites offer examples of what could be next for the real estate.

Repurposed Restaurants

Many Hooters buildings may be renovated and repurposed as other restaurants.

Like the former Hooters in High Point, North Carolina that closed in 2023.

This 5,600 square foot restaurant was the end cap unit in the Peters Plaza IV shopping center located in High Point’s commercial corridor.

This former Hooters was not vacant for long — it reopened last year as Rinco Deportivo Bar and Grill, a Mexican restaurant.

A former Hooters along the Saginaw River in Bay City, Michigan was vacant for ~4 years.

Until the landlord of the shuttered Hooters dined at a nearby restaurant where his grandchildren were working.

When the former Hooters landlord found out that the restaurant’s owners were contemplating expansion, he steered them to the Hooters site.

The result?

The former Hooters was renovated and reimagined as the H20 Waterside Grill and is now one of the most prominent waterfront restaurants in Bay City.

Multi-Tenant Strip Center

While not common, some former Hooters buildings have been repurposed for multi-tenant use.

Like a former Hooters in Wichita, Kansas that was converted into a two-tenant strip center.

It is now occupied by Aspen Dental and IHOP.

Strategic Acquisition

Some of the former Hooters restaurants may be on land that is strategic to a neighboring property owner.

For instance the Hooters along Dixie Highway in Louisville, Kentucky that closed in mid-2024 is adjacent to the Neil Huffman Mazda and Volkswagen dealerships.

Not surprisingly the site was quickly acquired by the Neil Huffman Automotive Group.

The dealership group has not yet revealed its plans for the site.

Redevelopment

Of course the land on which some of the Hooters restaurants sit may be worth far more if redeveloped for other uses.

Like the former Hooters on Riverside Drive in South Austin, Texas.

The Hooters closed in 2018 and the building was demolished a year later.

In its place on the 1.4 acre site is now a 15 story, 350,000 square foot, RiverSouth Class A office tower that was developed by Stream Realty Partners.

To enable a dense, multi-story development Stream Realty needed to rezone the site for a planned unit development, or PUD.

Because the former Hooters site had once been owned by the family trust of Charles Schulz, creator of the Peanuts comic strip the new zoning was dubbed the Snoopy PUD.

Stream Realty and Austin city planners now believe RiverSouth and the Snoopy PUD will be a model for future new development along the south shore of Lady Bird Lake in Austin.

Vacant Hooters real estate will not be the only cluster of former restaurant sites on the market.

Hundreds of casual dining restaurants have closed in recent years in part due to the recent bankruptcies of Red Lobster and TGI Fridays.

But as the examples above demonstrate, well located former Hooters buildings and sites may still have a bright future for repurpose, adaptive reuse or redevelopment.