Absent, unresponsive landlord forces Pizza Hut to pack up

The Pizza Hut on Union Avenue closed on Tuesday after efforts to renew its long-term lease were unsuccessful. The corporation that owns the franchise is hoping to find another location soon. (Adam Drapcho/Laconia Daily Sun)

Union Avenue restaurant closed yesterday,  but hopes to reopen elsewhere

By ADAM DRAPCHO, LACONIA DAILY SUN

LACONIA — The Pizza Hut, located on Union Avenue, closed its doors last night after four decades of business. It wasn't for lack of customers, though – the restaurant's lease is expiring and attempts to contact the land owner have failed.

The local Pizza Hut franchise is owned by GC Pizza Hut, a corporation that operates restaurants across the Northeast. The city's tax map shows that the land, comprising two-thirds of an acre at 1137 Union Avenue, is owned by Gerald C. MacNeil, whose address is a post office box in Wichita, Kansas. 

Kent Lavalla, store manager of the Laconia Pizza Hut, said that the company has been trying to contact the land owner for at least four years, in the hopes that the long-term lease could be renewed or renegotiated. But, with no response, the store shut down after service on Tuesday night so that the restaurant could be cleaned out before the end of the month.

"For right now, it is closing," said Lavalla on Tuesday morning. While GC Pizza Hut's first choice was to continue at the Union Avenue location, he said the company is "actively looking" for another nearby location.

In the meantime, all 15 employees of the store have been offered positions in other Pizza Huts in the state. Lavalla, who lives in Barnstead, will work at the Rochester store.

But Lee Dufault, who was offered a position in Tilton, decided instead to take a job at a local gas station.

Dufault thanked the customers that she's come to know over the 14 years that she has worked at Pizza Hut.

"We'll see them at a new location, hopefully soon," said Dufault. Some of their customers cried, she said, when she told them about the closing. "Especially for our older folks, it's really sad... A lot of people are really going to miss this place. I know I'm going to miss them."

"We want to be sure that we thank the customers of Laconia for their last 40 years of loyalty," Lavalla said. "We hope to be back in the not-too-distant future."

Laconia Pizza Hut Store Manager Kent Lavalla and employee Lee Dufault wait to greet lunch customers on Tuesday, while Assistant Manager Monica Granger takes a pizza out of the oven. The restaurant closed its doors on Tuesday after 40 years of operation. (Adam Drapcho/Laconia Daily Sun)