Wing Zone Hot Chicken & Wings has closed, only five months after it opened this summer in northern Colorado Springs.

Wing Zone opened in late June inside the Marketplace at Austin Bluffs shopping center, the fast-casual chicken chain’s first location in Colorado. The restaurant is known for its made-to-order, hand-breaded boneless wings, chicken tenders and sandwiches.

Poor sales, the restaurant’s lack of street visibility and increasing business costs were partly responsible for Wing Zone’s November closure, said Christen Sanders. She and her husband, Ron, briefly served as operating partners of the local Wing Zone but were not its owners; a local group served as the franchisee.

The Sanderses are the franchisees for the three Capriotti’s Sandwich Shop locations in Colorado Springs. The Las Vegas-based chain specializes in slow-roasted turkey sandwiches. In 2021, Capriotti’s acquired Wing Zone, which now has more than 80 restaurants in five countries, according to Wing Zone’s website. There no longer are locations open in Colorado.

Management for Capriotti’s and Wing Zone asked the Sanderses to operate the Wing Zone because of their success with Capriotti’s in Colorado Springs.

But sales proved tough and Wing Zone wasn’t attracting enough customers, Christen Sanders said, adding that the building is not easily visible from major cross-streets Academy Boulevard and Austin Bluffs Parkway.

“It’s kind of hidden and you don’t have a good street view,” she said. “I think visibility was the No. 1 issue, because … the feedback we got from a majority of our customers was that the (food) was great.”

The couple “did everything we felt we could do” to help make Wing Zone successful in Colorado Springs while also running three Capriotti’s franchises, Sanders said. They worked long hours and tried to better market the restaurant by participating in chicken wing contests and serving fresh, made-to-order wings at the Air Force Academy’s home football games, she said.

Unfortunately, it still wasn’t enough. Increasing business costs for food and other supplies, wage increases and insurance compounded the Sanderses’ challenges operating Wing Zone.

“Wing Zone never made enough money to sustain itself,” Sanders said.

It became more difficult to run four restaurants when Ron Sanders and other Capriotti’s staff members had to take planned and unplanned absences from work between July and September.

“In theory, we thought we’d have all this time that we could dedicate” to operating Wing Zone, but it didn’t work out that way, Christen Sanders said.

It is unclear what will happen with the vacant Wing Zone space in Colorado Springs.

Glynn Chambers, vice president of brand expansion for Capriotti’s and Wing Zone, and Carly Krowl, the managing director of leasing for AmCap, a private equity real estate firm based in Connecticut with a regional office in Denver, did not return The Gazette’s requests for comment this week. AmCap owns and leases space at the Marketplace at Austin Bluffs.

Some Capriotti’s locations in Las Vegas have been transformed into a dual kitchen concept, where the storefront is Capriotti’s but staff can also fulfill online orders for Wing Zone menu items, Sanders said. She and Ron could possibly implement the dual concept at one of their Capriotti’s franchises in Colorado Springs, but nothing has been decided.

“We’ve talked about that, but we’re nowhere near any kind of agreement or finalization, or anything like that. But that way, Wing Zone would stay in the market. It just wouldn’t have a storefront like (the location at) Academy and Austin Bluffs,” she said.

Wing Zone is among several restaurants in Colorado Springs that have recently announced closures.

Hungry Howie’s, also inside the Marketplace at Austin Bluffs, closed in late October. A Blackjack Pizza opened in its place in November. Longtime community favorites Mountain Shadows Restaurant in Old Colorado City, and Drifter’s Hamburgers at Mark Dabling Boulevard and Garden of the Gods Road in north central Colorado Springs, also have closed.

Munchies and China Town Restaurant in downtown have announced they will close at the end of the year.