Less Than Two Weeks After Fatality, Hooters to Close

Hooters restaurant at 4143 N. Shiloh Drive in Fayetteville is closing on Aug. 27, an unidentified Hooters employee said Wednesday morning.

“It has something to do with the lease,” the employee said. “That’s all I can say.”

There is a sign on the Hooters property advertising leasing opportunities with Bayer Properties, which is based in Birmingham, Ala.

The 4,897-SF building was built in 1972. Washington Co. property records indicate the land is part of a plat that includes the Northwest Arkansas Mall.

Hooters had revenues of $1.07 million in 2011 and $1.09 million in 2012.

Through the first seven months of the 2013 fiscal year, which began in December, the restaurant generated $619,000 in revenue.

News of the restaurant’s closing comes just two weeks after Gilbert Flores, 34, stumbled out of the eatery on the night of Aug. 1 and was run over twice while trying to cross North College Avenue on foot. He died five days later at Mercy Hospital in Springfield, Mo.

According to published reports, the Fayetteville Police Department believes Flores was inebriated when he left Hooters. A source familiar with the case told the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal the investigation into Flores’ death will definitely show he was not only drunk, but very drunk, when he left Hooters on Aug. 1.

Under Act 695 of 1989, the holder of an alcoholic beverage permit can be put under review by the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board if there’s reason to believe the license holder failed to operate the business in a “manner which is in the public interest, and does not endanger the public health, welfare, or safety.”

An official with the beverage control board confirmed Wednesday morning if Hooters relocates, the “violation would travel with the permit.”