Rafferty's Restaurant & Bar in Kennesaw has closed. The regional chain occupied a freestanding 6,500 square foot building (2501 Cobb Place Lane) along Barrett Parkway in an outparcel of the bustling Barrett Pavilion shopping center. The restaurant closed as of July 1 with its closure blamed on "a lost lease," according to online postings. Kennesaw readers and real estate sources tell ToNeTo Atlanta that the restaurant had been in business for many years, reportedly since the overall development opened in 1994. Following the closure there is just one Rafferty's left in Georgia, on Huntington Road in Athens.
Bowling Green, Kentucky-based Rafferty's started in 1981 and according to a 2014 article, at one point had grown to nineteen locations. Following the Kennesaw closure, the chain now consists of just thirteen locations, six of which are in Kentucky.
Rafferty's featured a lodge theme and was open for lunch and dinner with an expansive menu of soups, salads, burgers, sandwiches, steaks and seafood, among other offerings.
The roughly 55 acre, 458,740 square foot Barrett Pavilion power center changed hands last January for $34.6 million. JLL, which brokered the sale, said the center came with "repositioning opportunities." It's likely Rafferty's, which according to sources familiar with the leasing efforts, had in recent years only signed short-term leases, was a victim of new ownership's "repositioning." A partnership between Nuveen Real Estate and SITE Centers Corp sold the property to a partnership between Lincoln Property Company and Stockbridge, a San Francisco-based real estate firm.
Adjacent to the now former Rafferty's, a shuttered 7,930 square foot Joe's Crab Shack is reportedly "under contract" according to updated leasing materials from The Shopping Center Group whose Brett Fuller is handling the leasing efforts of the center on behalf of new ownership.
Are you sad to see Rafferty's close in Kennesaw? What is your favorite Kennesaw area casual sit-down restaurant? What would you like to see open in the former Rafferty's in Kennesaw?
Please share your thoughts below.