Mohegan — The Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville restaurant at Mohegan Sun will close Jan. 2, resulting in the layoff of 59 employees, according to a filing with the state Department of Labor.

The labor department received a letter from the vice president of human resources for IMCMV Holdings, the company that owns Margaritaville, on Tuesday.

The letter indicated that impacted employees, none of whom is a union worker, include servers, bussers, cooks, dishwashers, bartenders, hosts, restaurant managers and AV specialists.

"It's our goal to retain as many of these members that desire to stay with the overall Mohegan Sun family, in new operations that will be added in the coming months, such as Comix Roadhouse & GAME ON," Ray Pineault, president and general manager of Mohegan Sun, said in a statement.

Margaritaville has operated at Mohegan Sun since 2008.

Pineault said that for the Margaritaville space, Mohegan Sun is "continuously exploring exciting offerings to enhance our guests' experience and will provide details as soon as we are ready to announce."

David Crabtree, president and CEO of IMCMV, said the term of the lease is expiring and, as part of the casino's renovations, that space no longer will be available. Margaritaville is located off Casino of the Wind, opposite the convention center.

Crabtree said he's "disappointed that we will no longer be there, because we really enjoyed our time at Mohegan Sun, and also I have great employees that I'm trying to get employed at other food and beverage outlets at Mohegan."

The closest Margaritaville location to Connecticut is Atlantic City but Crabtree said the company has a lease signed to open in Times Square.

"We're going to have our huge celebration for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day," Crabtree said of the Mohegan location, adding, "We always like to have events at the holidays but we're going to make it a little extra special, because we are closing."

e.moser@theday.com