Jillian’s on Champaign’s South Neil Street closes
CHAMPAIGN – The Jillian’s restaurant and entertainment center on South Neil Street has closed, with its Louisville, Ky.-based operator saying the Champaign facility had run its course.
“We had a fantastic 15 years in Champaign. We really liked the market quite a bit, but it just ran the cycle,” said Tyler Warfield, president of JBC Entertainment. “The downtown has gone through such a resurgence, and we were just enough off the path that it became a tough pull for us.”
“We needed a large reinvestment to stay relevant,” he added, and the company decided it was in its best long-term interest to close the 20,000-square-foot restaurant, which featured billiard tables, video games and giant-screen TVs.
The restaurant’s 37 full- and part-time employees were notified of the closing Sunday, the restaurant’s last day in business. Warfield said employees were offered a severance package, but he would not disclose what it was.
The closing comes only two months after Jillian’s was discussing the possibility of remodeling second-story space at its location at 1201 S. Neil St. – a former Coca-Cola bottling company building. The building’s owner, Doug Larson, recently acquired the Collins Oil station to the north, partly as a way of providing more parking for Jillian’s.
“We had a resurgency about two years ago, but the last 12 to 18 months had been a tough run,” Warfield said. “It was just kind of a general decline.”
The Champaign location was the only one of Jillian’s 15 locations to close Sunday. Warfield said Champaign was one of the smaller markets to be served by Jillian’s.
Warfield said entertainment centers such as Jillian’s face “a difficult time” right now.
“Our section of the industry is based on discretionary income, and everyone’s facing rising prices,” he said.
Warfield said JBC Entertainment is working with a consultant to look at different ideas for Jillian’s, including revamping menus, and at a couple locations, tweaking the concept.
“We really liked the Champaign market. We had a fantastic 15 years, and we want to thank the community for all the support,” he said. “Unfortunately, we ran out of steam. We have some very loyal employees, and we owe them a lot of gratitude.”
Attempts to reach Larson for comment on the future of the property were not immediately successful.