The number of Hardee’s restaurants in the Springfield area continues to decline, with two more locations closing permanently within the past week. The stores at 317 E. Clear Lake Ave. and 2501 Stevenson Dr. both have “permanently closed” signs on the front doors directing customers to visit the remaining locations at 1835 Sangamon Ave. and 600 W. Jefferson St.
Hardee’s has had a Springfield presence since 1973 and at the start of 2024, there were five restaurants in the capital city plus two in nearby towns. The Hardee’s at 1700 Wabash Ave., which had been operational since the building was constructed in 1984, closed on Jan. 29, 2024, along with the Hardee’s in Chatham and Virden. Stores in Monticello and Champaign owned by the same franchisee were also shuttered at that time.
A new franchisee, Superior Star LLC, took over 93 Hardee’s sites throughout the Midwest at the end of last year, including the four remaining Springfield locations. The Phoenix-based company purchased the assets of another Phoenix-based franchise, StarCorp LLC, and had announced plans to refresh some of the newly acquired stores.
Parent company CKE Restaurants operates more than 3,800 Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. restaurants across 44 states and 43 foreign countries, according to the company’s website.
A public relations coordinator for CKE Restaurants provided the following statement to SBJ in response to an inquiry about the status of the closed restaurants: “The Hardee’s locations on Clearlake Avenue and Stevenson Drive have been closed permanently. This decision was not made lightly. We appreciate our communities’ patronage and have enjoyed serving guests throughout the years. We are excited to welcome guests at other Hardee’s locations across the country.”
The Chatham property changed hands several days after Hardee’s closed, with Jay Clark, a broker with The Real Estate Group, telling SBJ at the time that it had already been under contract to a new buyer before the tenant announced plans to vacate. The property was purchased for $750,000 by Tri-Jen of Springfield LLC, according to Sangamon County tax records.
The former Hardee’s on Wabash Avenue is listed for sale at an asking price of $1.1 million by Steven D. Weinstock, a broker with commercial real estate firm Marcus & Millichap.
A representative for Superior Star LLC did not immediately respond to an email inquiry regarding plans for the two newly vacated properties. However, the Stevenson Drive Hardee’s is advertised on Loopnet, a commercial real estate site, as a sublease at $10.50 a square foot through August 2033.
You would think a rock themed hardees that leaned into the route 66 tourist theme and hosted concerts with international guests like Shonen Knife as well as regular antique car meets, would be more successful. But at some point the franchise owners seemed to just give up trying. The last two years rock and roll hardeees was circling the drain, running on skeleton staffing. I was sad to hear them close, a neighborhood fixture is gone.
They were “Sandy’s” before Hardees, har-de-har-har-har! I always told myself that Hardees wouldnt last, and that was when i was in my late teens, way back in the late 1960s.
Can’t say I’m surprised. The service and food quality the last few years has been awful. The takeover by Carl’s Jr seems to have started the the problem. I quit eating burgers from there around that time as they got messy and were not as tasty. About the only food I still get from there anymore is an occasional breakfast biscuit. With the closing of the Stevenson Drive location, I probably won’t be eating Hardees in this town at all anymore. The locations in Beardstown and Mt. Sterling have had better service these past few years. Several of us were talking the other day about how when they were still Sandy’s the food was better.
What about people who work there for a long time are they guaranteed to be placed at another location they need their jobs to take care of themselves and their family it’s not fair
The Springfield Hardee’s were probably the cleanest and best fast food establishments in Springfield. In fact, two of them were the top two in the whole company for sales and profits. What happened to Hardee’s is the same thing that happens to most establishments. They were bought out by Carl’s Jr. out of California and from there they started going downhill. The first thing that happened was they fired all of the store managers who were all very good and doing a tremendous job. Problem was they were making too much money as far as Carl’s Jr. was concerned.
With many of their combos approaching $15…its hard to find a reason to go there anymore.Nearly all of their business at my downstate IL location is during breakfast,with some lunch business and nothing after 2pm!
Hardee’s was a good place to eat back in the day. Lately nobody wants to go there because it’s a ghost town. One guy making the food and a cashier. That’s it. Not in any way the Hardee’s I remember from the 1980s. A slow dive downhill for several years and no corporate support.
I’m glad to see someone else mentioned that it cost about $15 to have a Burger, Fries, & drink. For that, a person can go to a Cafe and have a sit down meal. As for “fast” food..that was lo g gone too. If there were only 2 cars in the drive thru, it was about a 20 minute wait to get your $15 hamburger. This does not count the number of times you drive off and the order is incorrect.. I agree with the people that said the downhill started when Carl jr’s bought Hardees.
I quit going there for 1 reason. Everytime I went by there it looked like a gangster hangout.