The Burger King restaurant at the southern end of Morgan Hill
has shut its doors, due to growing competition and road
improvements that made access to the property increasingly
difficult over the years, the property owner said.
The Burger King restaurant at the southern end of Morgan Hill has shut its doors, due to growing competition and road improvements that made access to the property increasingly difficult over the years, the property owner said.
Bruno Martino, the property owner at 16025 Monterey Street, said the restaurant closed Wednesday night. All the Burger King logos were stripped off the building, and the restaurant’s working appliances and equipment were removed by Thursday afternoon.
The restaurant opened in 1980, and since then has seen a variety of eating establishments crop up around it.
“The competition just kind of exploded over the years,” Martino said.
The property, on the northwest corner of Monterey Street and West Edmundson Avenue, was the first corner at the intersection to be developed.
“They brought it up from absolutely nothing,” said Martino, who has owned the property since 1953.
When the city re-routed Edmundson Avenue several years ago, that made entry and exit to the property difficult for many passing motorists. Plus, a center divider installed on Monterey Road shortly after that, just in front of the restaurant, limited turning options to exit the parking lot, Martino said.
He also said a newer Burger King near the intersection of Dunne Avenue and Walnut Grove Drive “cannibalized” the one on his property.
The restaurant on Martino’s property was leased by Strategic Restaurants, who owned the local franchise when it closed.
Martino said he is in negotiations with a potential new tenant to move onto the property, though he did not specify who or what type of business might move in.
Phone calls to Burger King’s corporate office and Strategic Restaurants were not immediately returned.
