The Statesboro location of Checkers, at 418 Northside Drive East, closed on Monday after operating 22 years at that location.
        Hull Property Group, who Checkers leases the land from, decided not to renew their lease. The Checkers owners have until May 15 to vacate the property. And while Checkers will tear down their current structure, they are actively looking for another Statesboro location to build a new restaurant.
        Hull Property Group did not respond to a request for comment about their decision on Checkers. We have learned through a variety of sources that Hull will replace the Checkers restaurant with another retail strip center that will include an AT&T Company Store and Aspen Dental.
        Bernard Dixon, owner of Statesboro Checkers, expanded to the Savannah area in 1994 and opened nine Checkers in the area. He still owns and operates six. Dixon was an early investor in McDonald's opening a chain of the franchise restaurants throughout the south.
        Dixon sold his McDonald's to his brother Jerry and with the encouragement of Joe Dyer, he invested in the Checkers franchise. Dyer was a McDonald's operator and had worked with Dixon in the past.
        Dyer originally opened and managed the Statesboro location. His first hire was Danny Linderman, who purchased Dyer's portion of the company in 2005 and now serves as the operating partner.
        Now 89, Dixon is still active in StarrChex, the company that owns the Statesboro Checkers franchise. StarrChex is currently led by his daughter, Valarie Babb, who visited Statesboro last week with Linderman to explore options to rebuild the store at another location.
        "We have a long, wonderful history in Statesboro," said Babb, who is president of StarrChex. "We regret that we are having to leave the current location but understand this is a business decision for Hull. Statesboro loves Checkers and we hope to return with a brand new Checkers soon."
        Employees are being offered opportunities in other Checkers locations in the area.
        Dija Lanier, the manager of Statesboro's Checkers, started working in the store when she was 16 and still in high school. She has worked in the store nearly 20 years. Ten of those years she has served as the manager. Lanier will be temporarily relocated to one of the Savannah locations.
        "Dija's story is a great example of the quality of employees we have in Statesboro," Linderman said. "She is a big reason why we don't want to leave the market. Operationally, this store continues to excel and exceed our expectations. We are aggressively looking for a new location to build a new, state of the art, Checkers."
        Please email DeWayne at dgrice@statesboroherald.com or give him a call at (912) 489-9499.