Video store plans to open on Broadway in place of Hardee's

The Hardee's Restaurant building at 1330 Broadway will be torn down to make way for a video store, Gerry Jones of RiverWest Partners said Friday.

The property is under contract, and closing on the sale is scheduled for next week, he said. The new owner will be Family Video, a Springfield, Ill.-based company with 450 stores in 14 states. Family Video has 19 stores in Missouri.

The company is the largest privately owned movie and game retailer in the nation. The company is third in overall market share among video and game retailers, according to the company's Web site.

Hardee's closed in March, with the corporate leadership at CKE Restaurants, the parent corporation for Hardee's, blaming the city's lengthy construction project on Broadway for lost business. A spokesman also blamed the property's previous owner, Han Mu Kang, for making a deal with the city without informing the corporation's headquarters.

The situation was a little more complicated than that, Jones said. The lease on the building was coming due and renewal meant a hefty increase in rent, he noted.

"Their lease was about up and they just wanted to get out," he said.

No one from Hardee's corporate offices was available to comment, and they did not return messages left Friday afternoon.

Family Video plans to tear down the existing building and construct a store to its specifications, Jones said. The property was rezoned in September from R-2 residential to C-1 commercial. The city had allowed the restaurant to operate in a residential zone under a special-use permit. That kept tight control over the types of businesses that could use the parcel, Jones said.

Jones said he wasn't sure about Family Video's timeline for construction and grand opening.

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126