Pizza Hut opening new Albany location

ALBANY — As Pizza Hut prepares to open a new carry-out location on Westover Road in Albany, sources indicate the company will be closing its full service, sit down restaurant on Dawson Road.

According to commercial real estate agent Mary Carter of Kingston Commercial, Pizza Hut officials recently agreed to lease a space in the Shoppes of Westover plaza for a new location to used for company’s carry-out and likely delivery business.

“They’ve already signed a lease,” said Carter. “It’s going to be take out.”

Carter added that she was informed by Pizza Hut representatives that in addition to leasing the new space on Westover the company plans to close it’s sit-down location at 2406 Dawson Road by the end of the year.

Additionally, Carter said she is currently working to find the company a second carry-out location somewhere else in Albany, but there is no word how a second carry-out location would impact the company’s other sit down restaurant in East Albany.

Bob Kralicek, director of real estate with Pizza Hut’s parent company NPC International, indicated in an email that the Westover Road location is scheduled to open November 5. Kralicek did not offer any addition information about the future of the Dawson Road or East Albany locations.

One assumption is that the company may be looking to phase out its sit-down restaurants and putting their focus in a larger network of take out/delivery locations, which typically have lower overhead to operate.

As the pizza restaurant industry continues to grow, netting $41 billion in sales in 2014, up 3 percent from the prior year according to a report from market research publisher Packaged Facts, industry trends indicate that fast casual and take-out/delivery locations have increasingly dominated the market.

Similar reports indicate that many consumers are more apt to get their pizza to go and less are likely to sit down as pizza has now become the second most popular quick-serve cuisine.

Although Pizza Hut leads the industry in terms of overall sales, the company’s chief competitors, Domino’s, Papa John’s and Little Caesars have continued to close the gap, having long ago eschewed the sit-down restaurant concept.