The Hometown Buffet in Manchester closed for the last time over the weekend. The buffet has occupied the space for over 15 years.
Hometown Buffet closed their Buckland Hills location after many years, the closing came as a shock to fans of the buffet, and frequent visitors who found the sign notifying them of the closure. The buffet was located on Slater Street in Manchester in a nearly 10,000 square foot building. The building is next door to PC Richard and Sons. The closure caught some by suprise, but the parent company Ovation Brands (formerly Buffet Inc) has seen many location close since their massive bankruptcy in 2012. Buffet Inc operated nearly 340 buffets across the nation under the umbrella of Hometown, Old Country, and Country Buffets. In 2006 Buffets Inc bought Ryan's Buffet, adding another 340 locations. The brand now has 60 locations under the aforementioned umbrellas, 21 locations under the Ryan's umbrella, and 8 locations under the Tahoe Joe's Steakhouse name. Hometown Buffet had area locations in Enfield, West Hartford, Wethersfield, Orange, and Waterbury; all of these locations have closed in the years after the bankruptcy. Hometown Buffet in Manchester continued to operate, even adding character days, family nights, and other events to bolster business. The building that housed Hometown was up for sale before the restaurant had closed, the posting can be seen here. The remnants of the buffet will be put up for auction, see that listing here.
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This month has been a very turbulent time for both Manchester and Vernon. Here are some of the highlights from this month including many new businesses openings! Manchester Opening: -Code Ninjas is preparing to open their coding academy in the former AT&T in the Manchester Parkade. They will open on February 4th. -La Plaza del Mofongo will open their restaurant in the former Pizza Hut Express location in the Save A Lot Plaza. -Subway will open a new location in a vacant space next door to Popeyes. The space was previously Friendly's. -Steve's Bagels opened their second Manchester location on Tolland Turnpike across from Manchester City Nissan. -CVS Pharmacy has opened their new location on Main Street. The location was built on the site of Carter Chevy. -Pastrami on Wry celebrated their grand reopening last week! Go check them out! -Danielle's Spencer Street Pizza has opened in the former home of Edi's Pizzeria. -Go Health Urgent Care has opened their new Manchester location in the Shoprite Plaza. -AZ Smoke Shop & Wireless will open on Main Street in the former home of Katherine's Hair Design. Manchester Closings: -Hometown Buffet has closed their Manchester location. -Farmington Bank has closed their Middle Turnpike branch after nearly 9 months of business. People's United Bank bought the bank and closed overlapping branches. -Rusty Metal's World of Clarks has closed their Hartford Road shoe store. The store was located next door to Statefarm Insurance. Manchester Business News: -Cardio Express has been sold to Planet Fitness, the Vernon and Manchester locations are in the process of transitioning the signs and all branding. -Shoprite has received a major remodel including a new facade and modified entrance, self checkout was also added. Vernon Opening: -Enterprise Rental Car will move from their current location at Olender's into the former Santander Bank/Scranton Powersports. -The former Cumberland Farms/Thornton's station located near Tractor Supply will soon become 360 Federal Credit Union. -The former Spark VR location at The Shoppes at Eastview will become a hair salon according to, Vernon director of economic development, Shaun Gately. Spark VR moved to a bigger location earlier this month. -Academy of Arts and Learning has opened their third academy in Vernon in the former Apple Tree Learning Center. -Economy Oil Change has applied to construct a car wash on the site of a former gas station near Carvel. -Studio 467 has opened in the former Crystal Blueprints locations in Rockville. The space is both an art studio and art gallery. -Two storefronts over, New Conventional Builders, have opened their new showroom for their contracting and roofing business. Vernon Closings: -Farmington Bank has closed their Tolland Turnpike branch after a year and a half in business. People's United Bank bought the bank and closed overlapping branches. -Cardio Express has been sold to Planet Fitness, the Vernon and Manchester locations are in the process of transitioning the signs and all branding. -Kmart is in the process of closing their Vernon store, sales are 30-40% off, and 70% all fine jewelry. Vernon Business News:
-Cardio Express has been sold to Planet Fitness, the Vernon and Manchester locations are in the process of transitioning the signs and all branding. -The Book Rack in Vernon was scheduled to close this spring, but new owners have taken ownership and will continue to operate it. -Minuteman Press has moved to a temporary location at The Shops at 30. -Annie Mac Mortgage has moved to a larger location within their current building. By Jean-Luc Dube Saturday January 19th, 2018 2:30 am
Fitness chain, Cardio Express, has been sold to competitor Planet Fitness. The sale was first rumored early this week with official confirmation coming on Thursday. Former employees of Cardio Express were notified of the discontinuation of group class ( a staple of Cardio Express.) Cardio Express is a small chain of fitness centers in Connecticut, once encompassing eight area locations. Cardio Express had locations in Tolland, Mansfield, and two in Wethersfields; all have closed in the last six months. Cardio has remaining locations in Manchester, Southington, Vernon, and East Hartford. The change to Planet Fitness will begin Friday, January 18, and memberships will be transferred to Planet Fitness, as was done when area clubs closed. The website for Planet Fitness' Vernon location and Manchester location are now active. Planet Fitness was started in 1992 in Dover, New Hampshire. The chain has grown to more than 1,600 locations in multiple countries. The 'Judgement Free Zone' as it's marketed, is the fastest growing fitness club in the US, and is one of the largest clubs in the nations based on locations and members. This is a very special version of the Buckland Business Brief. One year ago I started writing the 'Buckland Area Retail Recap' the predecessor of Buckland Business Brief. I am also very excited to announce the pending launch of the new website! TheManchesterScoop.com!
Closing: -Lego has closed their Buckland Hills pop up location, the store was open for the holidays in the former Belden's Jewelry locations near JC Penney. -Cool Stones Hot Rock has closed their kiosk at Buckland Hills Mall, the store was located in front of Barnes & Noble. -Toy City has closed their pop up toy store inside of the former Toys R Us in The Plaza at Buckland Hills. -Land's End is closing their location inside of Sears in Manchester. Land's End was once owned by Sears, but was spun-off, the closure represent Land's End shift to their own storefronts. The store will permanently close January 19th. -Fanzone has closed their seasonal Buckland mall location. -The Marines have closed their recruitment location at the mall. Opening: -Burger IM has opened their Deming Street location! The slider restaurant opened next door to Verizon and Panera in IHOP plaza. -Mocha Emporium officially opened their location inside the Buckland Hills Mall. The coffee shop is located in the former Teavana location. -Construction has officially started on BJ's Brewhouse! The restaurant will open early this spring across from Long Horn. -OrangeTheory Fitness has started build-out work for their 'Plaza at Buckland Hills' location. The gym will be located next to the newly opened Jersey Mike's. -Studio Eats has opened at Cinemark Manchester (Formerly Rave Motion Pictures), The restaurant and bar replaced the generic bar. -Express in the mall will be converted into Express Factory, the outlet version of Express. The opening will be February 14th, 2019. Other Buckland News: -Sears in Manchester has averted yet another wave of closures by the struggling chain. Sears announced another 80 store closures on December 28th, including the Vernon Kmart. The fate of the entire chain is to be decided January 14th. -A massive fight broke out at The Shoppes at Buckland Hills on December 26th, this mirror a similar fight that happened exactly two years to the day. The fight was thought to have been planned on social media, and was followed by an increase in security and heightened security policy. -I have received some news of a new restaurant coming to Buckland Hills Mall from a credible source; but the parent company has not confirmed the story, once I get secondary confirmation a full article will be released with all the details! Be on the lookout for the news! -Rave Motion PIctures has been rebranded to Cinemark Movie Theaters, Cinemark is the parent company of Rave; and upon completion of a major renovation the brand was changed. Shameless Dairy Queen Plug: -On Saturday January 19th, Dairy Queen on Hartford Road will host Customer Appreciation Day from 10am to 5pm. Everything in the store will be 50% off! (Some exclusions, like $6 and $7 lunches apply, cannot be combined with other offers.) Sears asked a bankruptcy judge to approve a planned liquidation as the struggling retailer rejected former CEO Edward Lampert $4.6 Billion deal to save the company. First reported on CNBC, negotiations broke down late last week as the deal fell short and neither side was willing to make concessions. As the morning progressed, the judge decided Sears wasn't done yet, The jugde gave Edward Lampert a second chance to revise his bid for the retailer. The once storied retailer has survived for 126 years, first starting as Sears, Roebuck, and Co. The announcement comes after former CEO and current chairman Edward Lampert's $4.6 billion bid to purchase Sears and maintain a majority of the stores, was rejected by the board. A formal announcement of the liquidation was expected this morning. Lampert has until January 14th to either sweeten his deal for the retailer or convince the board why his deal is better than liquidation. Sears has a location at The Shoppes at Buckland Hills in Manchester, a Kmart store in nearby Vernon is already liquidating. The Kmart store’s closure was announced last week; with liquidation beginning on Friday. Sears originally opened their Manchester store at the Parkade on Broad Street; this store later was expanded, then moved to its current location. The former home of Sears at the Parkade was razed and is now home to Stop & Shop. The Sears in Manchester, along with the now-closing Vernon Kmart, were listed on the 'Go Forward' stores, these stores were to be part of the smaller version of Sears that would manifest post-bankruptcy. Edward Lampert was planning to purchase these stores and continue to operate them, but total liquidation was deemed more profitable to pay down existing debts. Sears was started in 1892 as a thriving catalog business, selling everything from clothing to houses, the business expanded into brick and mortar stores in 1925. Kmart merged with Sears in 2005 (just three years after Kmart's bankruptcy) creating an unusual hybrid model of discount stores and department stores. Sears filed for bankruptcy protection on October 16, 2018.
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