Q. Why did the Monkey Junction Golden Corral close? Is there any word as to what will replace it?
A. Golden Corral closed its location at 5211 S. College Road in late January, with Jacksonville, N.C.-based franchisee Platinum Corral declining to renew its lease with the property owner.
“Golden Corral Corporation recommends one unit in a market the size of Wilmington,” Platinum Corral president Billy Sewell wrote in an email. “We do not have further plans to build another store in the Wilmington area. We are focusing our efforts in larger, less competitive markets.”
Sewell said there are plans to build a new, larger facility next year for the remaining franchise property at 5130 New Centre Drive.
Platinum Corral operates 26 units in six states. The Raleigh-based parent company oversees about 500 properties nationwide, with roughly 9,000 employees and an estimated $1.68 billion in revenue in 2011.
As for the abandoned property, unfortunately we can’t answer speculative questions about services or retail developments at MyReporter.com. If such a service or development is announced, it will be reported in the StarNews and at StarNewsOnline.com.
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Date posted: February 17, 2015
User-contributed question by:
Richard Abeling
The answer given by corporate was so corporate. Something fishy is going on with this closing. This restaurant was always very busy and I cannot imagine any landlord not renewing their lease or any profitable business not wanting to renew. The corporate answer was that they recommend only one restaurant in a market the size of Wilmington, yet there it was, for many years and was the preferred location of many people in the area. The second corporate answer was that they wanted to concentrate on a larger, less competitive area. That just doesn’t make sense as larger cities have more competition for your dining dollars. I smell a rat here.