Batavia Burger King closing

No more Whoppers in downtown Batavia as of July 20.

The Burger King at Batavia Avenue (Route 31) and Houston Street is closing after 25 years due to poor sales.

The restaurant’s owner announced the closing, via letters on its doors, late last week.

“It’s always been our lowest-volume (store),” said Laurie Roscoe, director of operations for Gill Management Inc.

The company had submitted plans to the city for a remodeling in 2012. “We were toying with that idea,” Roscoe said. But the arrival of more competition in Batavia, with the 2012 opening of the Golden Corral restaurant and the spring opening of Chick-fil-A, pushed the decision to instead close “over the edge,” she said.

The employees will be transferred to Gill’s other six Burger King restaurants, including those in South Elgin, Elgin, St. Charles and Bartlett.

Batavia Mayor Jeff Schielke was mayor when the restaurant was built and recalled the fight over it having a drive-up lane. He thinks that drive-up will make it an attractive property to another, smaller fast-food restaurant.

“The site just doesn’t have the traffic numbers” Gill wanted, Schielke said. He said the company is looking for a busier, larger site with more parking in Batavia. Schielke said he suspects the Burger King Corp. wanted the site refreshed, as a matter of policy, after 25 years.

It will become the second vacant drive-up restaurant in Batavia. Salt Creek Barbecue, on Randall north of McKee Street, has been closed about two years. Before that, it was a Fazoli’s.