Chapel Hill businesses still dealing with effects of tropical storm flooding
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The Aldi grocery store at Eastgate Crossing is still undergoing renovations for damage from Tropical Storm Chantal. Photo: Zachery Eanes/Axios
More than seven months after Tropical Storm Chantal significantly flooded parts of Chapel Hill, businesses at the popular Eastgate Crossing shopping center are still working to clean up the mess.
Why it matters: The lingering effects of Chantal, which dumped more than 7 inches of rain in 12 hours, have shown just how damaging fast-forming tropical storms can be amid intensifying climate change.
- Chantal caused more than $56 million worth of damage in Orange County, much of that at Eastgate Crossing.
Driving the news: At Eastgate Crossing, the storefronts tell the story of the past year. For some, it is business as usual, with the Trader Joe's grocery store as bustling as ever.
- But many storefronts are still dark, either closed for good — like the Starbucks, Bruegger's Bagels, Jersey Mike's, Rise Biscuits and Talbots — or full of construction workers doing renovations, like at Aldi and Petco.
Zoom in: The coming weeks, in particular, will be a busy stretch for reopenings and a critical moment for many of the businesses.
- Kipos, a Greek restaurant, reopens this weekend, and Snooze, a brunch restaurant, will reopen March 1.
- Aldi, the largest tenant at the shopping center, will reopen sometime this spring, according to a spokesperson for the grocery store.
What they're saying: Brianna Borin, chief operating officer of Denver-based Snooze, was helping train staff Friday morning ahead of a reopening next month.
- She said that the flood caused significant damage and that reopening was a big decision for the company because the restaurant has been closed for so long.
- "We believe that there's potential to gain community support back, and hopefully it's even better than it was before," she told Axios. "People understand what it means to be a part of this community, and we want to be a part of Chapel Hill."
Jack Daoud, owner of Olmaz Jewelers, a store that suffered significant damage but was able to open in October, said the whole ordeal will "haunt" him for a while.
- Every time there is heavy rain, he said, he feels compelled to check security footage and make sure everything is OK.
Yes, but: He still believes Eastgate is a great place to be, especially with Trader Joe's reopened. With that anchor, he said, it remains a premier destination.
- Trader Joe's brings in "a lot of people, a lot of residents in Chapel Hill, in Durham, a lot of college students," he said.
Case in point: J. Crew Factory opened a store at Eastgate in November, a sign of continued investment in the shopping center.
State of play: The town has invested heavily in keeping Booker Creek, which runs beneath the shopping center, from flooding. It made improvements to the area to handle a surge in water in 2020.
- Those improvements helped remove the floodwaters from Chantal quickly but didn't stop several feet of water from entering businesses. Kite Realty, the owner of the shopping center, did not respond to a request for comment.
- Tenants at the shopping center say they are hopeful that the town will do more to prevent situations like Chantal, though that storm has been billed as so rare it should happen only once every 500 to 1,000 years.
- Climate change, however, is changing that math for businesses.
