Jillian’s ends six-year run

Jillian's, a longtime anchor tenant at the Neonopolis mall, has closed to make way for a new restaurant, mall developer Rohit Joshi said Friday.

The restaurant, bar, arcade and live music venue was a prominent feature of Neonopolis since it opened in 2002 and had survived numerous ownership changes and other disruptions that have plagued the mall.

Joshi said Jillian's stopped operating as a restaurant on Nov. 14 but held a concert Thursday night, an event he said would be the venue's last. Three other concerts that had been slated for Jillian's before the end of the year have been relocated, he said.

Joshi said the decision to close Jillian's was the result of new proposals for the first-floor, street-front space that came in after an announcement the Star Trek: The Experience attraction would open in Neonopolis in early 2009.

The Star Trek attraction drew millions of visitors during an 11-year run at the Las Vegas Hilton that ended in September.

"They heard Star Trek was coming," Joshi said of backers from three entities he says sought Jillian's space. "They will announce it after my Dec. 12 meeting, sometime before the end of the year."

Joshi said the parameters of a deal are in place, but it isn't closed and he wouldn't identify the tenant.

He did say it would take four to six months to remove the furniture and fixtures at Jillian's and to get a new tenant up and running.

"We are retooling everything," he said.

Whether Joshi can deliver on his promises remains to be seen.

The developer has a mixed record when it comes to fulfilling pledges and meeting deadlines.

A perceived lack of progress toward filling Neonopolis has been a regular point of frustration at City Hall, where officials are anxious to reap more returns from a subsidy they provide the mall in the form of an underground parking garage for customers.

Mayor Oscar Goodman has lashed out at Joshi in public several times, including once in June 2007, when the city bent liquor licensing rules to help keep Jillian's open.

The restaurant, which was run by Joshi's wife, Lorraine Kusuhara, was close to losing its liquor license because Neonopolis owner Dharmesh Bhanabhai refused to submit to a background check.

The City Council, with support from Goodman, agreed to grant Jillian's a license anyway.

Even as he voted in favor of the exception, Goodman criticized Joshi for closing down businesses that had been in the mall.

Contacted Friday, Goodman said he takes Joshi "at his word" that a new tenant is close to signing.

That's why he didn't object when he heard about the decision to close Jillian's just 17 months after he and the council went out on a limb to help keep it in business.

"It was a different story," Goodman said of the situation in 2007. "Nothing was happening there."

Today, Joshi has managed to fill much of the second floor of the mall with artist studios, a night club is scheduled to open next month on the first floor and the local affiliate for the Telemundo television network is in the process of moving its operations to the third floor.

"He is making some significant strides," Goodman said of Joshi.

Steve van Gorp, deputy director of business development, says he, too, believes Joshi will deliver a new tenant for Jillian's.

He said Joshi meets as often as twice a month with city officials to discuss progress at the mall.

"Everything is coming together nicely at Neonopolis," van Gorp said. "He is clearly working on a master plan here to try and get good anchor tenants."

Contact reporter Benjamin Spillman at bspillman@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861.