Ben & Jerry's opens Durham location, while Carolina Square attracts new retail shops

Ben & Jerry's

After a ten year process, CEO Antonio McBroom finally acquired a Ben & Jerry's in Durham.

The UNC alumnus bought the Franklin Street location of the ice cream chain in 2008, where he used to work as an undergraduate. 

The new store at the Streets at Southpoint opened on Nov. 16. McBroom and his staff held an event celebrating the opening, which included facepainting and balloon art. The store also gave free cones to customers who came by from 4 to 8 p.m. 

“We opened it up with an hour of close partners and friends and family of the Ben & Jerry’s chain. Legal partners, many folks from UNC and the Morehead-Cain Foundation was there to support us,” McBroom said.

The location will have daily promotions, such as Waffle Cone Wednesdays, when every order comes with a free waffle cone, Milkshake Mondays, Thirsty Thursdays, Free Topping Friday and a buy-one get-one half off deal on Sundays. 

McBroom said he was interested in the Durham market around the same time he acquired the Franklin Street location, but was unable to buy the existing Ben & Jerry’s near Duke’s campus. 

When that store closed at the end of 2016, he and his team began searching for their own location. 

He said the team settled on the Streets at Southpoint because of its abundant foot traffic from entertainment, retail and restaurants. He hopes the Ben & Jerry’s can be a community pillar for decades to come.  

Carolina Square 

Carolina Square is attracting many new businesses that range from fashion boutiques to restaurants, according to The News & Observer. Once open, the town hopes they will particularly attract non-student residents to the area. 

“The development itself has been a key linking of East and West Franklin Street,” Meg McGurk, executive director of the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership, said. “We have a big, linear, long downtown, we don’t have as many breaks and blocks as other downtowns have, and so that development has helped link things, for businesses, for foot traffic, for events, for everything.”

Dwight Bassett, Chapel Hill economic development officer, said new businesses like Target can drive foot traffic and turn the area into more of an economic focal point for town residents in addition to the student population. 

“One of the things that downtown [Chapel Hill] has been struggling with over the decades is that it's been primarily a student destination,” Bassett said. 

McGurk said downtown businesses must focus on wider markets than just university students to remain viable. 

“The ones that are there or that are coming are looking at the entire communities in their markets, not just the residents that are above them,” she said.

Bassett said a couple of the businesses moving into Carolina Square recently received their interior upfit permits, which approve plans to prepare the inside of the store for their tenants moving in. He predicts many businesses will open early next year. 

Snowflakes Around Town

Chapel Hill is getting into the holiday spirit, with a total of 35 light-up snowflakes lining Franklin Street and the downtown business district. 

McGurk, the executive director of the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership, said the decorations were bought from a family-owned business in Raleigh in 2008, and they have been hanging every holiday season since then. 

“We say ‘downtown Chapel Hill shines bright every holiday season’ for all of our marketing, and part of that is the bright lights and snowflakes,” she said. “This year we actually just had them rewired and re-bulbed, so all of the snowflakes are exceedingly brighter than they have been in previous years.”

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