April 30, 2024
Business Reporting
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - The Purple Bowl will relocate to 505 W. Franklin St. this summer after the purchasing of the space by Longfellow Real Estate Partners.
Established in 2017, Purple Bowl is an açaí bowl restaurant that has become a staple small business in Chapel Hill due to its heavy involvement in the community.
Liza Wilcott, customer, said she supports them because they employ people with disabilities and sell delicious smoothies. She said they are great at engaging with the community, something other businesses lack.
Purple Bowl nearly faced closure after Longfellow Real Estate Partners bought the property in summer 2022. A “Save Purple Bowl” campaign was started in an attempt for Purple Bowl to remain in its original location, but the campaign failed in November 2023.
This forced Purple Bowl to begin its plans for relocation. After six months of searching for a new space, Purple Bowl will move to 505 W. Franklin St. this summer.
Although acquiring the new location is a victory for Purple Bowl, the restaurant must adapt quickly to keep up with Playa Bowls, an açaí bowl chain based in New Jersey, coming to Franklin Street this summer.
Purple Bowl and Chapel Hill Life Sciences Center
The Purple Bowl, located at 306B W. Franklin St., was founded by Paula Gilland and her son Taylor when they saw the need for an açaí bowl restaurant in Chapel Hill.
Paula Gilland, CEO, said Purple Bowl has grown drastically over the years.
“We were 1,200 square feet and now we’re about 2,800 square feet, and our new space will be 3,000 square feet inside and 3,000 square feet outside,” Gilland said. “Our volume of work has gone up tremendously and people have been very supportive.”
Longfellow Real Estate Partners, a real estate investment company based in Boston, purchased Purple Bowl’s leased space in summer 2022. In November 2022, Longfellow announced they were going to redevelop the space to build a wet lab and life science center called Chapel Hill Life Sciences Center.
Alex Carrasquillo, Town of Chapel Hill Public Information Officer, said the Chapel Hill Town Council approved the rezoning of the property for the lab on Nov. 29, 2023. He said Longfellow is early in its process and plans could change many times.
The lab will be the tallest building on Franklin Street at 165 feet tall with 100 underground parking spaces, confirmed by Gilland. She verified that the project site is 1.84 acres between West Franklin and West Rosemary.
Drew DiMeo, employee, said the Longfellow purchase was stressful because no one knew if Purple Bowl was going to find a new space. He said he thought Purple Bowl was going to close for good.
“I thought for sure we were done,” DiMeo said.
Relocation
Purple Bowl will relocate to 505 W. Franklin St. this summer. Gilland said a UNC-Chapel Hill alum connected them to Northpond Partners, a real estate group based in Chicago, who helped them acquire the space.
She said it is in the reconstruction phase and they have all the permits from the town.
“We are completely gutting what was there and creating a really beautiful space that we think people will want to be in,” Gilland said. “There will be a lot of natural light, a big outdoor space, and a little walk-up window for folks to order their food.”
Gilland said she is intimidated by the new location but hopes the UNC-CH freshmen from South Campus will walk further down the road for Purple Bowl.
Save Purple Bowl Campaign
Before the Longfellow rezoning plans were approved, a “Save Purple Bowl” movement started involving students, athletes, and members of the Chapel Hill community. A petition was created in January 2023 that received over a thousand signatures according to employee Rachel Kivlan. An additional video was posted highlighting the relationship between Purple Bowl and student athletes.
The video was produced by UNCUT Chapel Hill, a nonprofit sports journalism platform centered around the mental health of athletes. Emily Jenkins, chief strategist at UNCUT, said Purple Bowl was very integrated with the athletic community and said the video helped people understand why Purple Bowl was important in Chapel Hill.
“There seemed to be a disconnect between the development, the town council, and the student body,” Jenkins said. “So we were just trying to expose that gap a little more and help the town council understand why this is such an important space.”
Purple Bowl supporters attended the town hall meeting on March 22, 2023. Kivlan acted as a student representative and spoke at the meeting. She said she felt her message was unreceived.
“I don't think that those town council members cared at all about what was being said,” Kivlan said. “It was almost as if I wasn’t speaking.”
Gilland said that even though Purple Bowl did not get the outcome they wanted, the movement created conversations amongst the community about what was important to them in Chapel Hill.
New competition
Playa Bowls, an açaí bowl chain based in New Jersey, is coming to Franklin Street this summer. It will be located under Top of the Hill Restaurant and Brewery at 104 E. Franklin St.
David Pokorny, owner of Playa Bowls in Durham and Raleigh, said he thinks Purple Bowl and Playa Bowls can peacefully coexist because they specialize in different things. Purple Bowl sells açaí bowls, smoothies, coffee, and toast while Playa Bowls mainly focuses on açaí bowls.
“Our taste is different,” Pokorny said. “Whatever you’ve had, I can almost promise you it's different here. It’s good enough to move from New York to North Carolina, where I spent my entire life.”
Kate Chenet, Purple Bowl employee, said Purple Bowl’s concern is that they are relocating further down Franklin Street while the new açaí bowl restaurant is moving to a more central location. She said they are hoping people will walk further to support them because of the food quality and community feel.
“We’re hoping that the students will support the locally owned and operated, but it’ll be interesting to see what happens,” Gilland said.