Kona Grill shuts down restaurant at Chandler Fashion Center

PHOENIX – Struggling Scottsdale-based Kona Grill has shut down the restaurant at Chandler Fashion Center, the second closure for the chain in less than three weeks.

A spokeswoman for the East Valley mall confirmed the closure Wednesday in an email to KTAR News 92.3 FM.

A week ago, the company reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission that its revenue “has decreased 12.4% and the net loss increased to approximately $32 million, primarily because of a decline in same-store sales” from 2017 numbers.

The same day the Chandler eatery locked its door earlier this week, the company chose an interim chief financial officer, the fifth executive leadership change in under a year.

The casual-dining chain has three other sites in the Valley — two in Scottsdale and one in Gilbert. The company closed a location in northeast Phoenix in late March.

“We look forward to filling that space with another new and exciting tenant in the future,” the mall statement said.

Kona has endured a continuing round of shakeups in the front office for the past several months.

Christi Hing was the latest to take over the CEO spot since August 2018, when Jim Kuhn was fired three months after he’d been hired. Jim Kuhn stepped in, then made way for the man who had helped launch the restaurant, Marcus Jundt. He also had been CEO from 2006 to 2009.

Jundt and Steven Schussler shared the CEO duties until Schussler resigned in January.

Jundt announced his resignation in late March.

Kona Grill, founded in 1998, has about 40 locations in 22 states and Puerto Rico, and Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Vaughan, Canada.

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