|Photo by Derek Redd| The Five Guys location at The Highlands will close later this summer.

TRIADELPHIA – Employees at the Five Guys restaurant at The Highlands have been informed the location will close at the end of the summer.

Management was informed during a conference call last week that the Five Guys corporate offices would not be renewing the lease for the space at The Highlands, explained manager Justin Keyser.

The current lease expires Aug. 31, at which time the restaurant will close its doors.

“They are not renewing the lease,” Keyser said. “They told us that last Thursday. We had a Teams call, and they told us that at the end. They do 10-year leases.”

The restaurant is located at 450 Cabela Drive at The Highlands within a retail strip purchased from the Ohio County Development Authority in August 2014 by developer United Growth of San Rafael, California.

Five Guys would open in the summer of 2015 at The Highlands.

As the property is not owned by the OCDA, local officials aren’t certain as to whether another tenant might be interested in moving into the space.

Ohio County Commissioner Randy Wharton, also president of the OCDA, said he was not aware of the future closing of Five Guys or future plans for development in that retail strip.

“Personally, I have not heard anything,” he said. “It’s not in a building we own, and there’s a good chance we won’t hear about it before anyone else.”