Something sweet is coming to Raleigh April 1 — courtesy of Chapel Hill’s Sugarland, which is set to open a second location in Cameron Village.
Katrina Ryan, Sugarland’s owner, said she signed a lease for the Cameron Village location in December and construction began Jan. 10. She said the shop is twice as big in square footage, though the size of the store front is similar to that of the Chapel Hill location.
The expansion comes after Ryan asked the UNC Property Office to allow her to add nearby storefronts to her Franklin Street shop in April, but was denied.
Ryan began looking elsewhere for room to expand, eventually settling on the Raleigh location. She said the new store will offer kitchen, freezer and office space that Sugarland desperately needs.
The bakery has been renting freezer space from University Florist, and Ryan and her catering manager cramp into a small, closet-like office with a single desk.
Ryan said the new location will serve the bakery’s state and national customers, while the Franklin street shop will still cater to customers in Chapel Hill.
“We have delivered wedding cakes for everywhere from Miami to D.C.,” Ryan said. “This sort of becomes the dedicated kitchen for our customers in Chapel Hill.”
Michael Morelock, an N.C. State University student and an employee at Medlin-Davis Cleaners in Cameron Village, said he thinks the bakery will succeed in its new location because the shopping center caters to Raleigh’s affluent customers.
“It sounds like something that is going to do well here,” he said. “Small, sort of more fancy shops like that tend to flourish.”
Ryan said the new shop will retain the original menu but could modify it if demand is different, and it will open and close earlier.
