University Place's To-Go Drink District Is Built to Get You From One End of the Property to the Other

From the patio at Stoney River Steakhouse to the lawn at The Commons, University Place now has signs marking where you can carry a drink. Since mid-September, a cocktail from bartaco or a glass of wine from the bar at Silverspot Cinema can leave the restaurant in a branded cup and come along while you walk past the shops. A little over a year ago, Silverspot was reopening after seven weeks of flood repairs following Chantal.

UPSocial, as the district is called, was laid out to connect a property that is still being turned outward, from its western restaurants to the open land on its eastern edge. Phase 3 of the redevelopment is delayed, so that eastern land will be a park for now, and the drink district is one of the main ways the owners are getting people to walk to it.

A State Permit Drawn Around a Single Property

UPSocial isn't the kind of social district that Raleigh or Durham created by town ordinance. In its August report on the plan, Chapelboro explained that an entertainment district runs on a permit issued directly by the North Carolina ABC Commission. It stays on one private property instead of spreading along public streets. The center's own UPSocial page names the authority as a Common Area Entertainment Permit under N.C.G.S. § 18B-1001.5. JLL manages the district on behalf of the property's ownership.

General manager Marni Sawicki of JLL Property Management told 97.9 The Hill that going through the state was faster than waiting for the Town of Chapel Hill to write its own social-district ordinance. Because every seller is an existing tenant with its own liquor license, she said, approval "just camps right at the state level." As a former mayor of Cape Coral, Florida, she had already helped bring a social district to that city.

The Town has been involved anyway. Chapel Hill Economic Development Director David Putnam told Chapelboro that Town departments worked with University Place's leadership on safety. He pointed to the existing entertainment district at Cedar Falls Courtyard off Weaver Dairy Road as a working model. The district officially launched at a ribbon-cutting on Wednesday, September 16, as Chapelboro reported.

The Rules, as University Place Posts Them

The posted rules and the boundary signs work together. Each rule decides where a drink can go, and that keeps people walking within the district.

The district starts at 10 a.m. so it can cover Sunday brunch. Each shop decides for itself whether drinks may come in. Verizon and The Frame & Print Shop post "Drinks Welcome" signs, and Solidcore, Flying Biscuit and Cyclebar post "Drinks Not Permitted." If a business doesn't welcome outside cups, you finish or toss your drink before going in. The center's UPSocial page also lists how many drinks one guest may hold at a time, along with a code of conduct for the common areas. Property security patrols the district.

Chapelboro's launch coverage also named Postino as a licensed participant, and reported that bartaco would add a mobile margarita stand.

The Walk the District Was Drawn For

Sawicki told Chapelboro that the goal was to "connect both sides" of the property, and she described the route stop by stop:

1. Stoney River Steakhouse & Grill at the western end.
2. The bar inside Silverspot Cinema, next door.
3. bartaco, with the pocket park in front of it set aside for live music.
4. Hawkers, farther along the same row.
5. Postino at the end of the row, with its own outdoor patio. Its website lists the Chapel Hill restaurant as opening in 2026.
6. Jeni's across the way, and then The Commons, the green space.

Her route links the restaurant row on the west side of the property with the green space to the east. In her words to Chapelboro: "You want to make a sense of place where [when] you say, 'I'll see you there,' they know exactly where 'there' is."

Why the East Side Will Be a Park for Now

Past The Commons, the property runs toward Fordham Boulevard. That land was meant for Phase 3 of the redevelopment by owner Ram Realty. Sawicki told Chapelboro that phase is delayed. In the meantime, the land will become a park with picnic tables and games, plus the live music and movie nights the center already hosts. She also mentioned a possible cornhole league.

In August, Sawicki described spreading the district onto the east side after the first rollout. When the district launched in September, its boundary already took in The Commons and the grassy areas set aside for a future phase of development. That means the land waiting for buildings now works as the district's backyard, and you can bring a drink along.

The Stores Filling In Between Those Stops

A walking route needs reasons to stop, and the tenants signed this year mostly line the path between the restaurants and The Commons.

• Barnes & Noble opened September 23 in the former Planet Fitness space, managed by company veteran Andrea Wilson. Local author Scott Reintgen signed books at the opening.
• Purple Puddle, a boutique selling flowers and luxury gifts, opened at University Place this year, according to The Daily Tar Heel.
• Bliss Nail Spa is taking the unit beside Postino. It will be the business's second Chapel Hill location; the first is in Elliott Square.
• HomeSense is building out 28,000 square feet on the north side of the main building, next to Barnes & Noble, and is aiming to open in spring 2027.
• Whataburger filed a development application with the Town in June for a 2,074-square-foot restaurant with a drive-thru at 219 S. Estes Drive, as reported by The News & Observer.

The unit at the far end of The Commons from Jeni's is the one gap on the walk. Its previously announced tenant isn't coming, and JLL is looking for a different business to fill it.

Putnam told Chapelboro that the smaller studio retail spaces in the 900 Willow building are where local entrepreneurs can test new concepts at rents more attainable than downtown or Franklin Street.

Friday, December 4, at The Commons

The district's first holiday-season test is set for the Friday before the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Community Holiday Parade. On December 4, from 6 to 9 p.m., University Place hosts "Santa Rolls Into UP" at The Commons, 201 S. Estes Drive. Santa rides in with the Chapel Hill Fire Department and Chapel Hill Police Department. The evening includes photos with Santa, s'mores by the fire, kids' games, holiday drinks and live holiday music, and it's free. The event page suggests arriving early to wave him in, and the latest details are posted there.

The Town lists the parade for the next morning, Saturday, December 5, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. in downtown Chapel Hill and Carrboro. That's two nearby holiday events on back-to-back days. For more of what's changed around town this year, see our Chapel Hill fall guide and our Chapel Hill neighborhood page.

The district rules above are a summary of what University Place posts, offered as general information and not legal advice; the center's UPSocial page has the current terms.

At SB Real Estate, we track changes like the redevelopment at University Place because the shops and parks a few minutes from home shape daily life in a neighborhood. If you'd like to talk about how this stretch of Estes Drive and Fordham Boulevard is changing, Schedule a Personal Consultation and we'll go through it with you.