Why Franklin Street?

On any given night you can find somewhere to hang out. At any given time, you can find every kind of person window shopping, eating, or strolling. With a background of Carolina blue skies and a 200 year old University, can you think of a better place to own a business? With the University of North Carolina’s 25,000+ students and 50,000 local residents, Franklin Street sits in the middle of a money making Mecca, or so one would think.

Being within walking distance from anywhere on campus and at the heart of every bus line in Orange County makes Franklin Street seem like prime real estate for entrapanuers. It boasts over 30 bars, great restaurants, and enough Carolina gear to clothe the entire town. So one would wonder why Chapel Hill residents have seen so many businesses come and go so quickly. Why is there so much emphasis placed by the Chapel Hill town council on the “development” of downtown Chapel Hill? Is it true, as writer for the Daily Tarheel Charles Dahan puts it, that

“the only businesses that survive are merely those that respond to the demands of the residents of downtown Chapel Hill: horny, binge-drinking college students?”

Many Chapel Hill locals lament the fact that many conventional businesses cannot make it on Franklin Street. For instance, Gap and the Sunglasses Hut, two nationally popular stores among a range of ages, had to close down because business was poor. The business retention rate on Franklin Street has been the concern of the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership for years. The Chapel Hill Downtown partnership is “charged with bringing the resources of the town, University, and the downtown community together to maintain, enhance and promote downtown as social, cultural, and spiritual center of Chapel Hill through economic development.”

With all the distress over retention, one must remember, just last week, Ye Old Waffle Shop celebrated its 35th anniversary and Julian’s has been a stronghold of Franklin Street for many years as well. What makes these businesses thrive and others fail miserably?

Over the course of the next few months, I will explore the interesting dynamic of Franklin Street business. I will seek out the answers to the questions that so many Chapel Hill students and locals have been asking. I encourage all to comment and e-mail me with things you have been wondering, loving, or hating about Franklin Street.