The Walt Disney Co.'s announcement Wednesday that it will close the ESPN Zone in Baltimore and four other cities next week brought a sense of loss but also hope that a new attraction would quickly replace it and help keep the Inner Harbor fresh for visitors.
Next Tuesday will be the last day of business at Baltimore's location, which opened 12 years ago as the first store in a chain that spaciously blends sports-bar dining with arcade-style entertainment. The venue is an anchor of the Power Plant, a mid-1990s redevelopment that helped spread retail and entertainment venues further east along the harbor.
The shutting down of the Inner Harbor location is part of a larger closure of ESPN Zone outlets nationwide, including locations in Chicago, New York, Las Vegas and Washington, said ESPN, which is owned by Disney. All five sites will close by Wednesday, while the chain's remaining restaurants, in Los Angeles and Anaheim, Calif., will remain open.
The decision comes as a recession-battered casual dining sector is struggling to lure patrons and competition intensifies among sports bars, including from neighborhood-oriented sports-themed restaurants that are siphoning off business from ESPN Zone and other chains. In one analyst's view, even the saturation of larger, flat-screen televisions has played a role.
"All of us have these big-screen flat LCD TVs in our living rooms now … and that is direct competition," said Darren Tristano, an executive vice president of Technomic in Chicago.
Officials with The Cordish Cos., ESPN Zone's landlord and the developer of the larger Power Plant that also includes Hard Rock Cafe and Barnes & Noble, said Wednesday they have begun receiving inquiries about filling the two-level restaurant and an outdoor seating area on the water. They did not elaborate on potential tenants. .
"The ESPN Zone location and barge are the premier entertainment venue location in not just the city but the entire region, and we will replace the ESPN Zone with an equally spectacular venue," Zed Smith, a Cordish Cos. vice president, said in a statement.
City officials and experts said they felt confident in the developer's ability to land another prime tenant. Some said they believed the ESPN Zone had simply run its course after 12 years.
"It was a coup when we got it," said M.J. "Jay" Brodie, president of the Baltimore Development Corp. "Twelve years is a long run in the retail entertainment business. This is not in any way a reflection on the Power Plant or Cordish Cos. or the city. It's a Disney decision that this is not their core business. It's been a great run."
Brodie said attendance at the Inner Harbor increased last year, but "it does need periodic refreshment, new things because we're living in a very 'been there, done that' society. This gives us an opportunity to have something fresh and new."
The ESPN Zone sports bars opened to capitalize on ESPN's brand, while bringing Disney's clean, family-friendly sensibilities to the sports-bar concept. The upscale venues served burgers and brews as walls of big-screen TVs beamed baseball and other sporting events into the dining area. Separate gaming rooms, dubbed "sports arenas," provided access to interactive games, such as virtual golf and boxing.
But the restaurants faced growing competition from other sports bar chains and local mom-and-pop restaurants that have added large televisions to draw the same type of customers, said Geoffrey Mackler, principal at H&R Retail.
"When they opened, it was a big splash," Mackler said. "I think they had a big name, but at the root of it, you have Disney, the parent company. They are in a lot of different businesses, and the restaurant business is a tough business."
The casual dining sector's sales at locations open at least a year have fallen because of the recession during each of the past two years, including more than 4 percent in 2009, said Steve West, a restaurant equities analyst with Stifel Nicklaus.
The space that will be left vacant by ESPN Zone is "still very well-located real estate," said Thomas Maddux, a principal of retail brokerage KLNB Retail. "You still have the Hard Rock Cafe, Barnes & Noble and other anchor tenants. You're next door to the [ National] Aquarium. It's as good as it gets from a real estate perspective."
On Wednesday, some ESPN patrons were disappointed by the closures, including a group of co-workers from Newark (N.J.) Liberty International Airport and the Port Authority of New Jersey who gathered in the game room and the bar before heading to the Orioles-Yankees game at Camden Yards.
"I think they should expand, not reduce," said airport worker John Gilburn Jr. "This is ridiculous. This place is a great operation. It brings people together and highlights America's great sports history."
The news hit especially hard for ESPN Zone's 140 Baltimore workers, who learned of the decision late Tuesday. Leigh Friedman, the regional marketing manager at the ESPN Zone in Baltimore and Washington, said employees will receive severance, including extended medical benefits and career consultation services.
The Baltimore restaurant's general manager, Scott Hutchison, has worked for Disney at ESPN Zones in Baltimore and other cities since the Baltimore site opened in 1998, when he started as a host.
"I've invested 12 years here and made a lot of friends here," Hutchinson said. "I feel bad about a lot of the people that work here, but I know I'll be OK. I know a lot of people won't be OK, though, and I worry about them."
lorraine.mirabella@baltsun.com
The Los Angeles Times and Baltimore Sun reporter Kate Smith contributed to this article.