On April 2, Broadstone Real Estate, a company who sponsors and manages diversified real estate investment offerings, bought the downtown Raleigh Krispy Kreme location for $4.7 million. Krispy Kreme has owned the location since 1985.
The initial public thought was that Krispy Kreme would be shut down, but that’s not the case, as Broadstone signed a 20 year lease on the property. The company recently purchased two other Krispy Kreme locations in Tennessee, one for $1.5 million and the other for $5 million.
Justin Hickland, sophomore and avid Krispy Kreme fan, was shocked when he originally heard that Krispy Kreme could be shut down. “I was shocked [to hear about the purchase] because Krispy Kreme is a Raleigh staple, you can’t take that away from people,” said Hickland.
He also feels very strongly that there should be other shop locations in Raleigh. “There should be more locations especially right here near Leesville. Students would bring lots of traffic to a new store, plus it would be a lot better than travelling all the way downtown,” said Hickland.
The Raleigh location also hosts the annual Krispy Kreme race, which will still begin on Hillsborough Street in 2019. Runners must run 5 miles and eat 2400 calories worth of donuts (a dozen) in one hour in order to complete the challenge. All proceeds are donated to the North Carolina Children’s Hospital.
Although there are no new Krispy Kreme shops sent to open soon, there will be regional offices opening in Charlotte and London, while the headquarters still remain in Winston-Salem.
But for now, there’s no need to worry as the Raleigh Krispy Kreme will not be closing anytime soon.
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