Warwick Hooters To Reopen: Report

WARWICK, RI — After sitting empty and abandoned for several years, Rhode Island's only Hooters restaurant is set to reopen within the next few months. The Airport Road restaurant has been "temporarily" closed since March 2015.

A winter storm forced the restaurant to close its doors after ice dams damaged the roof, WJAR reported. The closure was only temporary while repairs were made, the owners said at the time, and the restaurant's marquee read that it was closed for storm damage.

Five years later, the same message remains, though most of the letters have since blown away or fallen off. A tall, temporary fence, like those seen at construction sites, has surrounded the building for years, closing it and the parking lot off to the public.

In February 2016, the location's Facebook profile photo was changed to say "temporarily closed." Nothing has been posted on the page since.

On Monday, the building's owner, Brad Turchetta, told WPRI that the franchisee had obtained construction permits and hopes to reopen the restaurant within abut 10 weeks.

The "temporary" storm closure in 2015 came in the wake of a health inspection failure that forced Hooters to close for remodeling in July 2015, following reports of mouse droppings in food prep areas and other unsanitary conditions.

The Warwick restaurant was not directly operated by parent company Hooters of America, instead by Hoot Owl LLC. In 2016, Hooters sued the subsidiary, saying it violated its franchise agreement by abandoning the restaurant along with another location in Delaware.

"The Warwick restaurant was in such deplorable condition in July 2014 that Hoot Owl 'voluntarily' closed the restaurant in order to perform necessary repairs and maintenance following a health department inspection," the lawsuit states.