Worried About Future Without Fresh Market, Arts Boutique Closes

By Amber Lester Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Kinks, Quirks and Caffeine owner Jennifer Raines alerted customers by e-mail Monday that her business has closed.

After more than a decade of business, the art boutique and coffee shop has closed its doors at its original location in the Colony Square shopping Center on Jamestown Road. In her e-mail, Raines said the decision to close followed failed attempts to negotiate with landlord Harvey Lindsay and concerns about the success of her business after the planned departure of The Fresh Market anchor store.

Developers for a planned shopping center called Courthouse Commons say the Fresh Market has agreed to move to the new center in the fall of 2011. The James City County Planning commission tonight will review the site plan for the shopping center, to be located on Monticello Avenue.

Raines said in an earlier e-mail that the upscale grocery store has tried to leave the Colony Square location for the past four years. She said the store tried to force Kinks, Quirks and Caffeine out of its location with no offer of compensation for moving expenses. When she found a location she was interested in, she says she contacted the Fresh Market’s corporate office; representatives told her they were no longer interested in expansion.

Raines said she made several requests to her landlord to discuss her options, including buying out her lease, but said he denied her requests. In her newest e-mail, she said, “Once again, all of my responses were either ignored or denied. Needless to say, I expected better treatment after being a good tenant for 13 years.”

Raines told customers and e-mail subscribers she hopes to find a more suitable location to sell similar merchandise.