University Place in Chapel Hill is losing a business that has been operating in the mall for the last 34 years.

Kitchenworks owner and founder Martha Marsh Jenkins said in a Facebook post that “It is with a heavy heart that I announce the closing of my store in University Mall.”

Kitchenworks is the latest in a series of longtime businesses to announce it will close its doors.

Grimball Jewelers and Twig are both in the midst of sales closing down their businesses. Both Grimball Jewelers and Twig are located in Village Plaza, which is owned by Regency Centers and has been the subject of redevelopment in recent years in the newly named Blue Hill District. That new renovation of the area has come after Chapel Hill adopted form-based code to lay out guidelines for potential developers.

Grimball Jewelers is closing rather than opening in a new location. Twig is closing its current location and the owner has said he would consider selling the store if another owner expressed interest in continuing the store in a new location.

Jenkins called it a “great honor and the privilege of my life” to operate the store over the last three decades.

Kitchenworks is having a storewide sale that will be ending in January.

“It has been a most wonderful ride and I have loved every minute of it! Thank you all so very much.”

The store’s website – kitchenworksinc.com – will reopen under new ownership in 2018.

Photo via Blake Hodge

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