Geo Concepcion calls himself a turnaround CEO.

In 2019, he was 34 when The Greene Turtle hired him to modernize a longtime Maryland sports bar brand struggling with closures and declining sales.

Among Concepcion’s most ambitious undertakings was a $4 million flagship project in downtown Towson that would eventually include a second-floor sportsbook gambling facility. Along with a new branch in Canton, the Towson restaurant was hoped to be a game changer for the Greene Turtle, making the most of Maryland’s recent legalization of sports betting.

Six years later, the Greene Turtle is on the verge of closing the Towson bar amid declining revenue and a public backlash to its “Thirsty Thursday” promotions.

During a liquor board hearing this past week, Concepcion called the Towson restaurant “the most expensive and shortest-lived project in the Greene Turtle’s 50-year history.” At the same hearing, the liquor board issued the spot a $1,000 fine and suspended its liquor license Thursdays in October.

Concepcion, who previously worked as chief operating officer of Famous Dave’s, has characterized the problems at Towson as an isolated affair for The Greene Turtle, a byproduct of declining foot traffic in the area and hostility from competitors.

But the Greene Turtle’s issues appear to go beyond its Thirsty Thursday promotions in Towson. The company, which is headquartered in Canton and has 19 locations in Maryland, closed a branch in Westminster late last month, while another franchise in Harford Mall shuttered earlier this year. Both faced low sales, Concepcion said.

The company is facing a lawsuit over unpaid rent from its landlord in White Marsh for a location that closed in 2023, with a trial scheduled for this month. Concepcion said the Greene Turtle is negotiating with the White Marsh mall to settle its lease termination.

Earlier this year, the Towson location’s landlord, MFI Realty, filed liens against The Greene Turtle and its parent company, ITA Group Holdings, totaling more than $100,000. Concepcion said MFI had imposed various financial penalties in the wake of the Greene Turtle’s Thirsty Thursday promotions and accused the landlord of “piling on” to the company’s misfortunes. A representative for the commercial real estate brokerage firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In 2022, Concepcion touted plans for ITA Group Holdings to invest in other local restaurants through its Founder Growth Platform. That effort has seen mixed success, Concepcion said. Several of those eateries, including Neo Pizza + Taphouse in Towson and RegionAle in Canton, have since shuttered amid weak sales.

More successful was the Greene Turtle’s acquisition of Oklahoma-based Clark Crew BBQ that same year. Concepcion said it has been “the most successful thing the company has done,” hands down.

When the Towson restaurant opened in 2022, it was just down the street from the location of a previous Greene Turtle franchise on York Road. But Concepcion said it underperformed from the start, bringing in only $1.8 million in annual revenue — $300,000 less per year than the location needed to break even.

The Greene Turtle Towson quietly ended its sportsbook operation in February, the Baltimore Business Journal reported this year. The Canton location still has a sportsbook, but Concepcion said it, too, has generally underperformed relative to expectations.

Sports betting in general “just didn’t pan out the way we thought,” Concepcion said, describing it as an issue across the industry. “I think the retail sports component … for any group who tried it, didn’t really work out as planned.” More gamblers are using their phones to place bets.

Making matters worse, Concepcion said, downtown Towson has faced a lack of foot traffic ever since the pandemic. He pointed out that several other eateries have closed in the area within the past year, including Nacho Mama’s, On the Border, Nando’s Peri-Peri and Perennial, from the Atlas Restaurant Group.

Still, many more restaurants have managed to succeed, said Nancy Hafford, executive director of the Towson Chamber of Commerce. “We have 92 eateries in a one-mile radius,” she said. “That’s a lot of places.”

As The Greene Turtle sought to boost sales in Towson, Concepcion and the restaurant’s operators looked for new sources of revenue to fill the gap. At the suggestion of a general manager, they began partnering with area DJs, who would come in on Thursdays and promote their appearances to their followers. From the restaurant’s perspective, it was a success, Concepcion said. The move drew crowds, and revenue was projected to be $2.4 million for the year.

But that’s also when things got out of hand, according to Aaron Brave, who owns The Reservoir, a nearby bar. Suddenly, hundreds and even thousands of people were filling the streets of downtown Towson on any given Thursday evening.

“Thirsty Thursdays” have long been an unofficial college night in the area, but Brave said “the crowds that they gathered were not the type of crowds that Towson is used to having.” On social media, videos showed sidewalks filled with people, with The Greene Turtle the nexus of activity.

Ken Leong’s 2AM Project launched in August, just up the street from The Greene Turtle’s York Road eatery. “All these crowds were just pouring into our restaurant,” he said. “We were so confused at first.” While his restaurant, which offers late-night eats, saw some benefit, the influx of people didn’t necessarily mean good sales. Many came inside just to use the bathroom. And he was concerned about safety, as people drank and smoked outside.

After a particularly rowdy Thursday night in August, Baltimore County Police began to flood the area with officers, which drew criticism from community members and others who said the heightened police presence there was shifting resources from the rest of the county.

While The Greene Turtle increased its private security and took other measures to control crowds, problems continued. After one Thirsty Thursday, a dirt bike rider struck a county police officer.

The Greene Turtle agreed to end its Thursday night promotions, but company heads were horrified as revenue plummeted to a quarter of its usual numbers. TikTokkers documented the slowdown online. On Sept 12, one user posted a video showing a relatively quiet bar with the text: “when the drama at greene turtle got so bad no one even shows up anymore.”

Concepcion said the branch was on track to lose $600,000 per year. It needed to close. “We write this off as a very expensive lesson learned,” he said.

As for the broader health of the company, Concepcion said The Greene Turtle remains a “turnaround brand,” but is overall doing better than it was when he took over. He’s optimistic about the future, including a recently opened location in Tampa, Florida, and another branch planned for Oklahoma.

Some Greene Turtle locations elsewhere will shut down, he said, as the company exits long-term leases in places that no longer make sense for the brand.

Back in Towson, Leong is concerned about the impact that the sports bar’s closure could have on other businesses in the area, including his own. “When a major player like The Greene Turtle exits … the entire district can feel that ripple," he said.

He thinks the decision to close shows that The Greene Turtle’s business model was too dependent on its Thursday night promotions, without having other revenue streams available.

Brave accused Concepcion and The Greene Turtle’s operators of capitalizing on the brand’s built-in goodwill in the community. The Greene Turtle got its start in Ocean City in 1976. A friend of the cofounders, Bill Packo, ran the original York Road location for decades before rebranding it as Barley’s Backyard Uptown. But given changes in The Greene Turtle’s current corporate structure, Brave said, it “really isn’t this staple hometown bar that people remember.”

Brave, for one, was celebrating news that The Greene Turtle would close its York Road location. Last week, The Reservoir hosted a promotion of its own. It offered $10 “shell breaker buckets” of beer for an event that it called, “Towson Taking Back Thursdays.”