As the weather in Chapel Hill is warming up, a new ice cream option is about to be available for those looking to cool off.

Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams — a popular national chain — will hold a soft opening for its location at University Place mall on Thursday. The spot at 223 South Estes Drive becomes the third Jeni’s location in the Triangle, following the Village District Shopping Center spot in Raleigh and the Brightleaf Square location in Durham.

The opening is a significant piece of University Place’s redevelopment and new vision, as Jeni’s is in a building constructed in the former footprint of the Southern Season store demolished at the Chapel Hill mall in March 2023. The ice cream shop will be one of two businesses that anchor a public green space that runs alongside new traffic connections to either side of the mall property and will be flanked by seven new store fronts built out from the existing, central mall building.

The turf green space in front of Jeni’s Ice Creams features various benches for visitors to use, and will be a place for future programming hosted by University Place. On the other end is another business space that could soon be filled.

Some of the new University Place storefronts facing the public green where Jeni’s Ice Creams is located.

Jeni’s will also mark the second new business opening in the month of February. A WakeMed MyCare 365 primary care and urgent care clinic, which is also in a newer building constructed on the east end of the mall property, opened the week of Feb. 10. While that part of the property was shut down for more than a year as the land was cleared from the demolition, new roads running north-south are now open for both vehicle and pedestrian traffic. With the completion of construction in that part, the redevelopment of the mall will transition to its next phase: building new mixed-use office on the other side of the green space.

As of its soft opening, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams in Chapel Hill will be open from 12 p.m. to 12 a.m. on Sundays through Thursdays, and from 12 p.m. to 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

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