Luby's shutters southside store

By Tricia Pemberton
The Oklahoman

Luby's at 7004 S Interstate 35 Service Road near Crossroads Mall has closed.

Mark Inman, with CB Richard Ellis/Oklahoma, is handling the sale of the 11,500-square-foot south store. He said the closing is part of Luby's continued plan to shutter and sell underperforming stores.

Meanwhile, equipment and contents from a closed Luby's Cafeteria at 3800 N MacArthur, in the MacArthurCourtShopping Center, will be auctioned starting at 10 a.m. Aug. 2.

Dakil Auctioneers Inc. is handling the auction.

Inman also handled the sale of that property.

Houston-based Luby's closed the MacArthur store in 2003 after announcing a two-year business plan to curb financial losses and pay down debt.

The 11,423-square-foot restaurant sold to CPG Property LLC for $580,000 in May. It will be leased to Topeka, Kan.-based restaurant chain Jade Grill and Buffet that plans to open an American/Chinese/Sushi buffet restaurant by October or November, owner Linda Lu said.

Lu also owns restaurants in Topeka and Kansas City, Mo. She said this will be her first restaurant in Oklahoma and plans to open two others, one each on Oklahoma City's south and north sides.

Lu said the restaurant will serve about 75 percent American food and 25 percent Asian, with more than 100 items on its buffet bar. It will be open for lunch and dinner.

Luby's now has only one cafeteria -- at Britton and May Avenue. Inman said that store is performing well.

Representatives from Luby's corporate offices did not return calls to queries about the properties.

Luby's started closing and selling stores in 2003 after reporting losses starting in 2000. The restructuring has led to a modest turnaround for the company.

In June 2004, the company posted sales increases of 4.8 percent over the same period in 2003.

For the third quarter this year, the company showed same-store sales of $77 million, an increase of 6.5 percent compared to the third quarter of fiscal 2004. Net income in the third quarter increased to $3.7 million, or $0.15 per share fully diluted, compared with $375,000, or $0.02 per share fully diluted, in the third quarter of fiscal 2004.

In April of this year, Luby's announced it completely had repaid and terminated a $14.6 million term debt facility originally established in June 2004 as part of the refinancing of the company's senior debt.

Funds for the repayment came from an $8 million draw down of the company's revolving line of credit, cash generated from operations and proceeds from real estate sales since the end of the second quarter. The balance of the revolving line of credit is $36 million.

.