HAMPTON - Newick's Seafood Restaurant on Route 1 in Hampton is closed for good, according to owner Jack Newick of Dover Point.

The restaurant, which has been closed for the winter, will not reopen this spring.

Proximity to the original waterfront Newick's in Dover Point and the value of Hampton commercial real estate are two reasons Newick made the decision this winter.

"Number one," Newick said, "it's too close to Dover. I don't want to run a seasonal restaurant. I suppose the land's worth a fair amount of money."

Asked if he would sell the property, he said, "Quite possibly, yes."

Newick, who lives in Dover Point, also operates Newick's restaurants in Merrimack and South Portland, Maine. Those restaurants do more business than Hampton and operate year-round.

Newick said he would like to use the money from the sale of the property to find another seaside location for a Newick's in an area at least 50 miles from Dover Point.

"That location is worth a lot of money," he said of the Lafayette Road restaurant space. "I think maybe I'd like to swap."

Newick's in Hampton has operated for more than 22 years. It operated year-round for most of that time, serving boiled lobster, fried clam and scallop plates and other seafood specials in an informal atmosphere.

"But it always suffered from being too close to Dover," Newick said. "If you talk to people, they'd rather come up here and sit by the water. When compared to Dover in all these years, it was not remotely close to Dover (in business). It was the weakest sister in the chain."

Newick, a lobsterman and fisherman, opened the first Newick's on Dover Point in the early 1960s. His father John operated a restaurant on Ceres Street in Portsmouth. One of his three sons, Brad, is also in the restaurant business.

"I would love to find another restaurant on the water," Newick said. "A seafood restaurant needs to be on the water."