09/30/2014
As many of you know, in expectation of the birth of our third child, we had been searching for a new owner for the café. We had many people reach out to us with interest, and had come to an agreement with one of our regular customers to purchase the café and take over. But in the process of transferring our lease to the new owner, our landlord let us know that they had learned the market value of our cafe space had increased and they would be raising our rent by more than 60% when the lease comes up for renewal beginning in December. Since Stay & Play is a young, family business with tight margins, the cost increase means the café will be priced out of its current location. Our buyers, also a young family, were valiantly attempting to look at alternative locations for the café to move to, but the cost of another buildout was found to be prohibitive.
With sadness, we must announce our closing on October 11. I apologize for the very short notice, but we have been working very hard to try to surmount the challenge of finding a location so we could continue with the sale and ongoing operation of the café until last night. Some of our staff have needed to move on with all the change, and without them our schedule will be a little erratic over the next couple of weeks, but we will do our best to get the word out about the couple of days we will be closed. Tomorrow, Wed 10/1 we will open at 2:00pm. Saturday 10/4 we will close at 2pm for a party. We will be closed Wednesday 10/8, Friday 10/10, and close at for a party on Sat 10/11 at 2pm.
If you have a birthday party booked later in the year, a membership, or a 10 visit pass that you won’t be able to use, and would like a refund, just stop by the shop in the next few weeks for a last hurrah. We will be happy to return what we owe you.
We will be selling off our toys, furniture, and equipment on 10/25 from 10am-1pm and possibly another day TBA. But if you see something you like at any point beforehand, let us know and we will try to make you a deal!
Thank you so much for the time you spent hanging out with us! It has been such a delight to get to know you and your precious kiddos! I’m thankful that in our still small enough town of Durham we will surely keep bumping into each other at the farmers market, the library, and the playground, even if downtown has gotten too pricey for our café. It’s been great, friends! See you around!
