In the Middle of the Night Thursday, Chili's Moved Out of the American Airlines Center

By Robert Wilonsky Fri., Sep. 4 2009 at 3:48 PM

Categories: Biz, News

The Chili's in the American Airlines Center, gone as of early this morning

As of today, the Chili's in the American Airlines Center is no more. And, yes, you'll say, But of course, just like all the other restaurants that have shuttered in Victory Plaza. Only, this tale is a bit more complicated: The doors closed one last time just last night, but long before that lawsuits were filed, as was a Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The timing is ironic, to say the least: It was almost one year ago to the day that the AAC trumpted the eatery's arrival via the pages of The Dallas Morning News, whose Karen Robinson-Jacobs wrote that a Chili's down there would give "sports fans, concertgoers and downtown Dallas residents a wallet-friendly dining option in the Victory Park area."

It was supposed to open in October of last year. It finally got going in December. And now, it's gone.

Says attorney Richard Pullman, who's representing franchisee Gilbert Aranza, "it's a sad story" that pits his client against Center Operating Company, the operating company for the American Airlines Center. COC's attorney, Joseph Friedman, says only, "I'm not at liberty to comment" because of the pile of pending litigation. Indeed, COC has already filed suit twice against Aranza's Base Holdings -- in Dallas County District Court and in Dallas County Justice of the Peace Court. Which is why, on July 6, Aranza filed for Chapter 11: According to the initial petition, it was "necessary to ensure that the Debtor's landlord would not attempt to terminate the Debtor's lease."

We'll have more on Tuesday, after we get a look at all the court documents -- so far, all we've seen are the Chapter 11 docs, including today's filings in which Center Operating Company makes it very clear it had no idea Base was moving out last night. (As in: "Late yesterday evening, September 3, 2009, the Debtor commenced a 'midnight' move out of the Chili's Restaurant located at American Airlines Center. Tables, chairs and other furniture and equipment were removed from the restaurant premises.") But this much is clear: The litigation over the AAC Chili's will last longer than the eatery did.

Update at 4:46 p.m.: Earlier this afternoon, I asked Rick Ericson at LeMaster Group, which handles PR for Tom Hicks and the American Airlines Center, about the closing. Moments ago, he sent me this statement from Brad Mayne, president of Center Operating Company:

"Of course, we are disappointed that the franchisee has closed the store that everyone hoped would attract new customers to Victory Park. COC has been working diligently for several months to assist the restaurant operator and continue the Chili's operations. Therefore, we were surprised that this action was taken and especially that it occurred in this manner. Obviously, we will examine all possibilities for the best future utilization of this space."

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It does make me sound stupid, doesn't it? I have lived in Brussels, Belgium, drove and took the metro past the EU headquarters at the next stop and then into downtown or north into Waterloo where my kids went to school for 3 years and seldom had problems. I drove through the loop in Chicago daily for years before freeways and never a problem. I lived in Baltimore and Washington DC before freeways and didn't get lost. Ect. ect. I have gotten turned around in Dallas more times than I can count. Maybe it is time to be put out on a ice floe.
I can think of 2 obvious reasons that Victory Park (and West End, Deep Ellum, the Arts District, and Uptown) is not "family-friendly" and is very unattractive to middle-class suburbanites with 2-3 kids who have some disposable income - a) no yards attached to the "affordable" housing and b) public schools that I would be afraid to go to, let alone send my 6-year-old to. Living downtown is hip and cool to the under-30 crowd and a small sliver of the over-50 empty-nesters/never-marrieds. My sense is that the overwhelming majority of the rest of us (including me) just don't see downtown living as appealing, in any respect. And let's not forget, downtown has not been where job growth has generally occurred for the last 15-20 years - that would be the suburbs, where you can get 3,000 sq.ft. and a 1/4 acre lot for ~$200,000, which is a heck of a lot better deal (in most folks' eyes) than uptown condos.
Bummer... just when DART and TRE will start every-day service this Saturday to the Victory Station and then the only easy-access restaurant across the street closes. There is something woefully wrong at Victory when no restaurant can survive. Yeah... there's still one left (give it some time), but, how many have failed there? Five eateries at least. Must have been some really bad numbers when a chain like Chili's closes after less than a year in operation and right before the DART/TRE connection starts and right before hockey and basketball season starts. Go by the AT&T Plaza and look at the four giant video screens playing to a deserted plaza and then remember when the squabble arose about having too many video screens there. And, there's the Belo Broadcasting brain-trust that brought the Cuecat to Dallas with another loser. A lot more kitty-litter will be needed to cover up this mess, though.
@Rain39, you make some good points, but really.... you get LOST? Seriously? The area between 30, 35, Woodall Rogers and 75 is about 2 miles square. LOL!! Lost??? Because the streets are at "angles"? Maybe you should get a NAV, or drop the car someplace centrally located, and cab from place to place. Good thing you don't live in DC or Boston
90% of DFW shoppers, have no f'ing clue what H&M is. Stop acting like that store is that great, it is just a different color Old Navy.
The Victory Park had an opportunity when it was first built to have a rail line down the center of the development with a station underneath the arena. Instead they forced the rail line to move to edge of their development. Not everyone wants to pay a fortune to park and then pay high prices for food or stuff. Now that the Green Line is opening, there will be more people going by Victory but because of the long walk from the station it probably won't be used except for game days. Compare this to Mockingbird Station which has gone out of it's way to attract transit riders. The day of successful car oriented developments is coming to an end. Victory is just a suburban development stuck in the middle of a big city. Contrast the ghost town of Victory to the success of Bishop Arts district where there is a couple of blocks of life almost every evening of local restaurants and shops. New places open almost every month. In downtown Fort Worth, the parking is free at night on weekends and at night. If you force people to use their cars you should not charge an arm and leg just to park. It discourages casual visitors. Also, the road network is poorly laid out and is not user friendly. I wonder if they could tear it down and start from scratch.
Damn it, Chilis is closed, where/when will I ever get the chance to try out their food, and that rote Brinker service. If you've ever worked there you know what I mean. Brinker makes a pretty damn fine chain restaurant, that is assuming you mind the chain restaurant part of that. This fits exactly what I keep saying, the city by taking TIFs and giving tax breaks will only get cha ins which offer nothing unique to draw customers. A small mom and pop likely has no appreciation of what a 4.59% tax savings will do for them. Only the team of accountants at a chain with proven metrics can appreciate such incentives. And, it's socialism. Or put more clearly command economics which IS as aspect of socialism. I don't mind command electricity, water, roads and STREETCARS, but command restaurants and real estate tend to not endure.
It should be obvious that everything needs to be linked by streetcar or bus. We have things on the 4 corners of downtown and you have to keep getting back into your car AND getting lost!! Those folks who don't live or work downtown or grew up here get lost all the time downtown because of the way the streets are on an angle. You are never going to bring the masses down there until they can manage to find a way to go to more than one place without getting lost. Each new area cannabalizes the last one. We used to love to go to the West end for dinner and a movie or just to watch the action 15 years ago. Well, the new area with all the neat shops opened up east of the freeway and then Victory and the West End just up and died. Now Victory has died. As soon as the Arts center is on its feet and there are more walkable restaurants in that area, it will become a very hot spot, I guess. Adding all that entertainment to the museums, the sculpture center and symphony will knock it out of the park!
Hm, maybe they shouldn't have named that trendy bar on top of the W "Ghostbar".......
Cue the music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rH0HiwpVQmQ
You want destination retail? Land the areas first H & M - do whatever it takes, seriously. You have, I'm certain some of the finest brokers on staff, make this their priority. Victory reminds me of Boston's Downtown Crossing. In the 1980's it was trying to revitalize an area punctuated with empty retail and old office buildings. Today it is a vibrant downtown, blocks and blocks of shopping, restaurants and in the middle an opera house that is growing (it's a stretch, I know comparing the AAC to opera house). Here's some of the things they did to make this successful. As in Dallas in the 1980's building owners began opening restaurants as amenities to their tenants. These restaurant facilities were funded and owned by the building owners, but managed by restaurant management companies. For many years, they did not pay any rent, only covering their share of CAM, taxes and insurance. Once they became profitable, they were spun off as separate businesses and began paying rent. Some of these restaurant spots were "food courts" with groups of franchised eateries (some were even local fast food - think Cowboy Chicken). Unlike Dallas in the 1980's, Boston made a big move towards downtown retail. You can find multiple locations of drug store chains in this 10 block square area. There's an H & M. a wine shop where those in staying in hotels can pick up a bottle of wine or beer for their room, and tiny boutique shops like a 3-story used book store. The small businessman is looking for three things to commit to building their business in an area, traffic, cost and stability. Bring in the H & M, bring in the traffic. Negotiate leases with smaller owners geared towards a long term relationship, take a greater portion in percentage rent than monthly base. Next conversation we're going to be having about this subject, I'm guessing will involve that new Park Lane development. That is pretty yucky and doesn't even have the AAC attached.
Yeah, as much as I love Chili's (and I do) why would I drive past at least half a dozen of them to deal with parking hassles and a long walk just to eat at the one by the AAC? The place was deserted when there was no game and on gamenights during the prime dinner hours (7-10p) people were inside watching a game, not enjoying a bowl of red and a beer.
Money quote - "everyone hoped would attract new customers to Victory Park." WTF, since when has a Chili's ever attracted anyone to go somewhere? What a failure in vision.
So a big corporate food chain was hassled by a ginormous corporate-branded stadium in a part of town built by big corporate money. *yawn*. Eat the rich. Never mind, it looks like they'll eat each other.
Want to see about 25,000 people down there on a weeknight? Come check out what's going to happen on Thursday the 17th of September. Free admission, but be early.
see ya on the plaza!
There was a Chili's at the AAC? What was the point of that?
"There are A LOT of residents living there" They apparently spend A LOT on rent and have little disposable income.
There's plenty of grocery stores in the area - Albertson's, Walmart Neighborhood Store, Kroger in Cedar Springs, and hell, the one over on Mockingbird is only a few stops on the train from downtown. The problem is there's no soul to Downtown, Uptown, Victory, etc. I took a trip to Fort Worth's Sundance Square a few weeks back and that looks like a city. It was still a morgue, but it looked like it could be vibrant. Downtown Dallas (where I live) was slapped together to maximize some returns for some rich white guys years ago, and is now just a ghosttown. The young folks that live around here are complete D-bags that continually trash the area with their garbage, dog-$hit, and lousy attitudes. And if you're an adult with children, there's absolutely no reason to move down here.
"Sigh": There are A LOT of residents living there. The W is full, then you have the Cirque, Jefferson, Terrace and Vista. I didn't list The House as it's barely occupied. You also have major businesses now based out of Victory Park - Hanes & Boone, etc.
How much more can you build down there in terms of "affordable housing? The VP area is surrounded on four sides. If you build on the parking lots someone is going to have to invest a lot of $$ for parking garages for the arena traffic. But, this is exactly what Perot, Jr. wanted. An exclusive enclave for his rich friends. He did not want family friendly places, he wanted a high roller, high density development.
Victory will continue to be a ghost town until they build more residential units. Nothing is going to survive over there with only a handful of residential buildings and an arena that is only used half the year. Hopefully the Germans will know how to fix VP. Here's hoping to more European like buildings/neighborhoods.
The problems at victory park are pretty depressing to be sure, but they are temporary. The area has a lot of great attractions, and a lot of fun life left in it. The biggest problems facing Victory (and downtown, and uptown, and Deep Elm, etc) is that they are not family friendly places. There are just not enough empty nesters and yuppies to build a community. Developers have to start thinking about how families are going to fit in. We're building the parks, but where are the Grocery stores for example? A family of four can't go out to eat every night. There has to be more available than retail and restaurants for an urban development to be successful. And second, affordable housing is a must. Why would a middle class family choose a 1500 sqft condo that costs $300,000 with a $400/mo HOA over a 3000 sqft house with $400/year HOA for the same price? Well commute time is one reason, but that is not going to sell many people until gas is over $4. If you don't want to wait for that, then you need to build more amenities and lower the price to compete.
Hell, if you can't keep a Chili's humming........ I drove past Victory Plaza about an hour ago and it looked like the last scene in the movie "On The Beach". (That's what Google is for, kids)
RIP AAC Chili's. Say hello to Rawlings Grill in Hell.
Don't worry...help is on the way. The new city-owned hotel plans on being just as popular an attraction!
As if the Victory joke couldn't get any bigger.