All posts in category Business

Parade of new businesses

The Holiday Parade marches down Franklin Street this Saturday, starting at 10 a.m. in front of the post office. Here’s a list of businesses along the parade route that are new in the past year, and some that have closed: Top This! opened in the former Jack Sprat Café spot. Insomnia Cookies opened where Clothes […]

Small town, big money

The Age of Private Equity Transactions has arrived in Chapel Hill. Private equity transactions are nothing new; they got a lot of press coverage during the 2012 presidential race because Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital specialized in them and made Romney rich. This is the concept: Buy an asset with borrowed money; resell it at a […]

3 Birds struggles to fly

When it first hatched in 2010, 3 Birds could have nested anywhere in the country. The three founders – Layton and Kristen Judd and Leonard Wohadlo – chose Chapel Hill, in part because of the proximity to the young talent pool provided by UNC. Initially, 3 Birds hired as many as a dozen interns a […]

Buy local

Last Wednesday, you had the chance to buy local, and it had nothing to do with the Carrboro Farmers’ Market. On July 24, a local company that has invested in Chapel Hill sold 2.5 million shares of its stock in its initial public offering. Heat Biologics, a biotech company working on cancer immunotherapy, moved from […]

It’s only a slice

Don and I live simply. Because we are so focused on paying our high property taxes (purportedly the highest in the state), we rarely go out to dinner. But once in a while, we’ll pick up a pizza to go. Last night, Don called Tedesco’s, our favorite Italian joint, to place an order, but the […]

Too lucky?

Council members must count how many of their colleagues attend an event lest enough of them gather in one place that they violate open meeting laws. Must they also count how many door prizes they win? The Friends of Downtown, at its holiday meeting on Dec. 6, gave out door prizes donated by downtown merchants. […]

Give them the business

From the way businesses have sprung up downtown, you’d never know that we’ve been through four years of a down economy started by a financial meltdown and we’re teetering on the edge of a fiscal cliff. Here’s a by no means exhaustive list of businesses that have opened downtown in the past year: Sweet Frog […]

Monday medley

Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt set a packed agenda for tonight’s meeting. Not that he has grown accustomed to meetings that last until midnight or beyond. But there are decisions to be made and work to be done. The taxi ordinance is the only item on the agenda that invites public comment. The proposed changes seem pragmatic […]

Gym jumps through hoops

Chapel Hill now has two town-owned buildings that can’t be rented out due to overdue maintenance. The Chapel Hill Museum building at 523 E. Franklin St. was shuttered in June 2011 because the town did not have the approximately $800,000 to do the repairs. And last week, Orange County Gymnastics learned it would have to […]

4 cups

Immediately following the disappointing vote against Charterwood last week, Town Council voted to allow food trucks in Chapel Hill. Council had to strike a balance between local restaurant owners who were unhappy with the prospect of additional competition in a tight economy, and local foodies who wanted an inexpensive meal out, and local kitchen entrepreneurs […]