University Mall (Chapel Hill, North Carolina)
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University Mall is an upscale regional mall managed by Kane Realty Corporation, and is located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina at the corner of U.S. 15-501 and Estes Drive. Opened in 1973, its original anchors included Belk, Ivey's (later became Dillard's), and Rose's, a regional discount retailer based in Raleigh. The Rose's store at the mall is best-known for devoting a considerable amount of floor space for clothing items and merchandise featuring the hometown UNC Tarheels. In addition, the mall also has other major tenants such as K&W Cafeteria, Harris Teeter, and Kerr Drug.
[edit] Tenants
The tenant mix at University Mall is fairly unique, featuring a heavy concentration of locally-owned merchants such as three art galleries including Turning Point Gallery, specialty boutiques, and gourmet food stores. Many of these stores, however, tend to keep their own operating hours and normally close up shop by 6PM, a rarity in most modern malls that tend to keep a more uniform operating schedule. Even so, the mall still manages to keep a few mainstream tenants, such as Foot Locker, Waldenbooks, Wolf Camera and Video, a Hallmark store, and a Radio Shack.
[edit] Response to Southpoint
In 2002, Belk shut down its University Mall location in order to combine its operations with its newly-opened store at The Streets at Southpoint a few miles away. Instead of opting for a more traditional tenant to fill the void, the Belk space was torn down to make way for a newly expanded retail outlet for A Southern Season, a locally-owned gourmet foods store. Previously, it has been located in an outlet at nearby Eastgate Shopping Center. Dubbed "the Nordstrom of specialty foods", A Southern Season usually draws more people outside of Chapel Hill than most other stores within the mall.
Later that same year, K&W moved to a free-standing location next to Harris Teeter, while its former mall space was occupied by Spice Street, a Mediterranean-themed restaurant run by Giorgios Bakastias, who runs a number of specialty restaurants in the area such as Parizade and George's Garage in Durham.
