Two days before Friday's reopening of Great Outdoor Provision Company's Chapel Hill location, the store was bustling with employees hanging jackets and stocking outdoor gear on shelves, and Sade's "Smooth Operator" blared from a set of speakers. Chuck Millsaps, a co-owner of the company and its minister of culture, was in high spirits.
"This is the fun part, rebuilding together," he said. "We started in Carrboro, so Chapel Hill is very special to us … and not only do we want to be back, we're seeing this as an opportunity, a chance to rebuild the store."
Great Outdoor Provision has nine locations across North Carolina and Virginia, which Millsaps noted typically have "creaky wooden floors." But at the Chapel Hill location, they decided to replace the wood with concrete. The store had operated at Eastgate Plaza for more than two decades. Millsaps estimated that flooding from Tropical Storm Chantal caused roughly $1 million in damages.
"To be open in time for the Christmas (shopping season) and to help people solve their holiday problems is what we do best," said Chad Pickens, the general manager of the Chapel Hill store. "We are hopeful that the town looks at ways that we might be able to mitigate future problems, and get ahead of it so that we don't see this level of destruction again."
After more than three months since Chantal dumped 6 to 12 inches of rain across central North Carolina, several businesses at Eastgate Crossing have reopened their doors. In addition to Great Outdoor Provision, those include Trader Joe's, Rose Nails, Winestore, Olmaz Jewelers, Guglhupf, and Chipotle.
There are still several businesses, including Aldi, The Loop, Kipos Greek Taverna, Twisted Noodles, and others along the southern corner of the shopping center that are still working on repairs and aim to reopen in the coming months. Some in the area have closed permanently, including Talbots and Rise Chicken & Biscuits.
An unprecedented storm for Eastgate Crossing
Eastgate Crossing, which was built in the late 1950s, has long been prone to flooding due to Booker Creek running underneath the shopping center. In 2020, the town of Chapel Hill built the adjacent Booker Creek Basin Park to handle 25-year storm events – however, Chantal was a 500-to-1,000-year flood event, reported WRAL meteorologists, a storm that has a 0.2 to 0.1T% chance of happening in a year.
Olmaz Jewelers co-owners Elie Abou-Rjeilei and Jack Daoud first opened their store in November 2018, shortly after Hurricane Florence hit the area. They recalled that the landlord assured them at the time that many measures were being taken to protect businesses. Abou-Rjeilei said they also built concrete floors and put their showcases – where their jewelry is displayed throughout the store – on top of solid wood.
Chantal, however, brought a volume of rain unlike storms that had come before it. On the night of July 6, Abou-Rjeilei watched water entering the store through the cameras that were installed inside.
"I rushed into putting my clothes on, thinking I'll be able to make it in time," he said. "I called the management company and gentleman who does maintenance on the property said 'Do not come. Water is rushing in real quickly, you are not going to make it in time. They are already evacuating people from Eastgate.'"
Eventually, the water rose to about 5 feet in the store. Abou-Rjeilei arrived early the next day.
''It was pretty devastating," he said. "People were walking around in disbelief."
Abou-Rjeilei said that the damages from the flood cost them more than $400,000, and while the business had flood insurance, it covered only a quarter of those costs. Their showcases, which cost $200,000, had all sustained damage and had to be thrown out.
Over the following weeks and months, Olmaz Jewelers continued to supply wedding bands and other pieces to their clients, at first operating from an office at the Chamber of Commerce, then at a temporary location at University Place. At the same time, they worked on rebuilding their store, installing metal cabinets, desks and other furniture to better withstand future floods. They also applied for a Small Business Administration loan, but are uncertain when they will receive it, especially with the ongoing federal shutdown.
"It was a painful few months," said co-owner Jack Daoud. "We had to juggle more than one thing, we had to focus on operations, meetings with the landlord. But we got our store back. We're excited, we're looking forward to the future."
Eventually, the store reopened exactly three months after the storm, on Oct. 6.
"It's something we never ever want to go through again," Daoud added. "I know Mother Nature might think otherwise and hopefully there will be improvements … (the town and landlord) have to do that, I mean something has to change."
"Small tenants like us, we can't survive another (major flood)," said Abou-Rjeilei.
When asked about any plans to build new flood mitigation infrastructure for Eastgate Crossing, Alex Carrasquillo, communications manager for Chapel Hill said in an email to WUNC, "Staff are working to gather information to bring to Council in the first half of 2026. This includes responding to Council interests/questions around ecosystem impacts and costs related to these types of projects."
