The Pizza Delight inside the historic Queens County jailhouse in Charlottetown is shutting its doors in the new year.

The Murphy Hospitality Group said it will not be renewing the franchise agreement on its Pizza Delight outlet on Longworth Avenue. The agreement expires in May 2020.

"Every business in our world has a life span and we've been with Pizza Delight since 1990. So it's 29 years and that's a great run, but our company has moved more toward independence and our own style of restaurants," said Kevin Murphy, of Murphy Hospitality Group.

"So it really didn't fit our model to make a commitment for another term of 10 or 20 years."

'We've been with Pizza Delight since 1990,' Murphy says. (Brian Higgins/CBC)

Murphy said the staff of about 25 people will all be offered jobs in other restaurants owned by the company.

"For us, it means something that it's a historic building. Our whole thing in our business is to be able to take businesses like this, buildings like this, that have historical significance in a community and bring it into a modern use so that it can continue on," Murphy said.

The Murphy Hospitality Group has been in a franchise agreement with Pizza Delight for the past 29 years. (Brian Higgins/CBC)

The space will be re-developed sometime in the year ahead, but Murphy said he isn't sure what will take its place.

"The value of that 1911 jail, it was pretty significant ... we're not sure what we're going to do with it but you can be sure we will not be looking to do anything really to the outside of it," he said.

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