Franklin Street’s popular Purple Bowl is moving as plans for Chapel Hill wet lab proceed
The story was updated at 11:45 a.m. Oct. 26, 2023, with the new Purple Bowl location.
Purple Bowl, a popular restaurant in downtown Chapel Hill, is moving, as plans to replace its building with a wet lab head to the Town Council for review.
Taylor Gilland, a co-owner in the business with his mother Paula Gilland, told the council in an email Monday that the restaurant at 306 W. Franklin St. has a new location down the street and will move next summer.
Gilland and his mother encouraged the town in the email to do more to protect Chapel Hill’s “charming, authentic downtown: and “to support local small businesses that will help Chapel Hill retain its local flavor instead of encouraging development that causes hardship for the local small businesses we do have.”
“We want more than anything for Franklin Street and downtown to live up to its potential,” Gilland wrote. “We will no longer push back against the Longfellow project and instead will focus on creating a new community space further down West Franklin Street.”
Gilland did not specify the new location, however, The News & Observer spoke with him on Thursday and learned the new, larger restaurant will open next August at 505 W. Franklin St.
The council is scheduled to hold its first review of the wet lab and office building project at 306 W. Franklin St. on Wednesday night. The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the Council Chamber on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
The proposed 150- to 160-foot-tall Chapel Hill Life Sciences Center would have roughly 320,000 square feet of laboratory, office and retail space, plus a 320-space parking deck.
While the building would sit at the lowest spot on Franklin Street, it would include a roughly 20-foot-tall mechanical penthouse that would make it the tallest building downtown.
It would replace a 1 1/2-story building that houses Purple Bowl and other local businesses, including Blue Dogwood Public Market food hall, Bella Nail Bar, and Chimney Indian Kitchen & Bar.
Launch Chapel Hill, a startup accelerator and co-working space founded by UNC, the town and Orange County, moved out of the building in February to the new Innovation Hub at 137 E. Franklin St. and 136 E. Rosemary St.
The town and the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership are trying to help the other tenants relocate, officials have said.
County records show Boston-based developer Longfellow Real Estate Partners paid $13.2 million last year to buy five lots that make up the project site. The land also includes three parking lots and wraps around Fifth Third Bank.
Greg Capps, managing director of Longfellow Real Estate Partners, said in October that the project now includes the bank land. The purchase of a third lot next to the project site — the current location of the Bicycle Chain bike shop — is still being negotiated.
The additional land would determine the final design of the building, the parking deck and the planned public spaces, Capps said. If the project is approved, Longfellow Real Estate Partners could break ground in 2025, he said.
This story was originally published October 25, 2023 at 11:14 AM.
