TGI Fridays Declares Bankruptcy And Closes 100 Restaurants -- What Will Happen To The Real Estate?
Some casual dining buildings have been re-tenanted by other restaurants while others have been repurposed via adaptive reuse
TGI Fridays declared bankruptcy on November 2, 2024.
Over 100 TGI Fridays restaurants have closed during the past year — including 50 in the week prior to the bankruptcy filing.
So with all these vacant restaurant buildings, what will happen to the real estate?
Will the shuttered TGI Fridays restaurants be destined for long-term vacancy — or could re-tenanting and adaptive reuse options be in play for the sites?
Most TGI Fridays restaurants operate in 5,000 - 8,000 square foot, freestanding buildings on 1-2 acre sites.
They are generally located on high traffic streets or on a shopping center pad.
And many were custom built for TGI Fridays.
So when a custom-built, casual dining restaurant closes, what is the re-use potential of its real estate?
Independent or local restaurants are often re-tenanting candidates for the space.
Sometimes the restaurant building is even razed so the site can be redeveloped.
But adaptive reuse options also exist for casual dining restaurant buildings.
For instance, a couple of former TGI Fridays restaurant buildings have already been subdivided into multiple spaces.
Like the former TGI Fridays restaurants in Jacksonville, FL and Taunton, MA that were each converted into two-tenant buildings that include a drive-thru Starbucks coffee shop.
There may also be adaptive reuse opportunities for TGI Fridays properties — as has been the case with other former restaurant buildings.
Like this Bob Evans-turned-Pearle Vision eye care center in Michigan.
Or this Outback Steakhouse-to-Jewelry Store conversion in Wisconsin.
Even unique and unconventional restaurant buildings have been repurposed via adaptive reuse.
Like the iconic A-Frame IHOP restaurants.
IHOP stopped building A-Frame restaurants back in 1979.
Over the past 45 years many IHOP restaurants were closed or relocated and the A-Frame buildings vacated and often demolished.
But some former A-Frame IHOP buildings are still in use and operating as other types of restaurants.
A few of the A-Frames have been repurposed for other uses such as nail salons, tailor shops and offices.
So even though more than 100 additional TGI Fridays restaurants are newly vacant and available, they may not remain vacant for long — and may even emerge with an unexpected new use.
