Chart House
closing four
Hawaii outlets

The independently owned
Ilikai site is unaffected as 11
U.S. eateries are shut down

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

The Chicago company that operates four of Hawaii's five Chart House restaurants said today it will close those outlets -- Kaneohe, Wailea, Lahaina and Kona -- within the next 60 days.

Chart House Enterprises Inc. said it intends to put its resources into improving and expanding its "better-performing" operations.

Another seven Chart House restaurants on the mainland will close, leaving the company with 39 restaurants, Chart House said.

The 30-year-old Chart House in the Ilikai Marina condominium at the Ala Wai Yacht Harbor is not included in the closings because it is an independent business and not part of Chart House Enterprises.

Typically, a Chart House restaurant employs 35-50, said spokesman, Bill Sullivan. That could mean about 200 layoffs in Hawaii. Nationwide, the company expects about 500 layoffs

Sullivan said the company's four Hawaii restaurants are in spaces leased from other property owners.

In a statement, the company said it will expand its Angelo & Maxie's brand and open new Chart House outlets. Chart House said it will take a one-time charge of about $5 million because of the closings. Chart House Enterprises had a net profit of $2.2 million from revenues of $108 million in the first three-quarters of 1999.

The company made its big expansion on Oahu in 1989 when it took over the Haiku Gardens in Kaneohe and the Seaview Inn at Haleiwa, turning them both into Chart House operations. It already had the two Maui restaurants and the one in Kona. It closed the Haleiwa restaurant in 1997 when the lease ended.