Pizza Hut to Open Restaurant in Yorktown
By Rick Pezzullo
Pizza Hut will be opening a restaurant in the former Charlie Brown’s location in the Mohegan Lake section of Yorktown.
When the national chain opens its doors this spring on Route 6, it will only be Pizza Hut’s third eatery in Westchester County and its first in northern Westchester.
Eric Goldschmidt of Goldschmidt & Associates, the exclusive leasing broker for the property, said Pizza Hut has signed a long-term lease to occupy 3,600 square feet of the 8,100 square feet once occupied by Charlie Brown’s before they filed for bankruptcy. A small ice cream shop will also open there.
The remaining 4,500 square feet will be leased to another “well-known brand,” according to Goldschmidt, which he declined to identify.
“I think the Town of Yorktown will be very happy and the community will be very happy,” Goldschmidt said of the mystery store.
Goldschmidt said the bad economy contributed to it taking a while to fill the space following Charlie Brown’s exit, but he noted his company also was looking for the right fit for the shopping center.
“There was a lot of interest and we rejected quite a few,” he said. “We have to be very careful as owners to put in a user that compliments the rest of the property and other stores. Now that Pizza Hut is coming in I’m getting calls over the place.”
Yorktown Councilman Nick Bianco said it’s nice that local residents won’t have to travel any more to Pleasantville or Fishkill to get their favorite pizza or bread sticks from Pizza Hut.
“I think Pizza Hut will be received well in Yorktown. It is always good to have national organizations which are family oriented in our town,” Bianco said. “It is positive to have a national chain and goes to show that contrary to some beliefs Yorktown is and always has been a friendly business town. My concern has and always been appropriate things in appropriate places. This is a prime example of such a thing.”
With several small pizzerias in the immediate area, Goldschmidt said competition can be healthy.
“Competition sometimes is good,” he said. “The community can go to their favorite pizzeria or Pizza Hut or both.”
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.