BLOOMINGTON - Competition finally closed the doors on one Bloomington steakhouse.

Ned Kelly's Steakhouse enjoyed a 15-year run at the Brandtville Center at Veterans Parkway and Morrissey Drive, but it's economically unfeasible to do business now, owner John Schmitt said Monday. The Australian-themed restaurant closed Sunday.

"Competing with big chains is really hard," Schmitt said. "We just didn't have an answer … People love new places, and they go to them."

Diners with Ned Kelly gift cards can write to Ned Kelly's Steakhouse - Bloomington, P.O. Box 1218, Champaign, Ill., 61824, and include their gift card number and amount for a possible refund, Schmitt said.

The closure came as a surprise to John Brandt, president of Brandtville Service, which owns the Ned Kelly's property.

The company will work to find another tenant for the 7,200-square foot space, Brandt said.

"We have to wait for the dust to settle on what has happened here. …" he said. "We will move forward to put another restaurant in that facility."

The number of new restaurants that opened in the Twin Cities in the past few years made it especially hard for Ned Kelly's to flourish, Schmitt said.

Schmitt also struggled with the cost of employee benefits and wages in recent years.

Ned Kelly's opened in Bloomington in 1992. At the height of the restaurant's business, Schmitt had three other Central Illinois locations. Eateries in Urbana, Peoria and Champaign closed last winter.

"We certainly tried to make a go at it," Schmitt said. "It was just impossible."

But Schmitt is not ready to throw in the towel and get out of the restaurant business completely. He hopes to become a restaurant owner again some day.

For now, he is a manager at Duffy McKaw's, a tropical-themed bar and grill at the Links at Ireland Grove golf course in east Bloomington.