JCPenney closing stores in Asheville, North Carolina: Here's what we know
Asheville's only JCPenney location at the Asheville Mall is set to close this spring.
A JCPenney representative told the Citizen Times via email that the Asheville location at 3 S. Tunnel Road plans to close its doors by May 25 of this year.
"The decision to close a store is never an easy one," the representative wrote. "We are grateful to our dedicated associates and the loyal customers who have shopped at our Asheville location."
You can find other JCPenney locations at JCPenney.com. Here's what else we know about closures.
More: Big Lots to sell many store leases: These North Carolina sites are on the list, 1 in WNC
Locations at 1105 Walnut St., Cary, and 380 N Cooper Drive, Henderson, were recently closed. Also set to close in 2025 are the following JCPenney locations:
4217 Six Forks Road Suite 100, Raleigh, NC 27609
1305 E Broad Avenue Ste 13, Rockingham, NC 28379
2910 N Elm St., Lumberton, NC 28358
3100 Dr. M.L.K. Jr Blvd. Ste 29, New Bern, NC 28562
JCPenney isn't the only chain store in the Asheville area currently on the chopping block. Several more stores and restaurants in the area that have closed or plan to close soon include:
Big Lots - 11 Mckenna Road, Arden
Party City - 80 S Tunnel Rd #15, Asheville
Bojangles - 99 Merrimon Ave., Asheville
Other chain locations including Krispy Kreme and several Ingles stores remain temporarily closed following damages from Tropical Storm Helene.
More: Big Lots to sell many store leases: These North Carolina sites are on the list, 1 in WNC
Iris Seaton is the trending news reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at iseaton@citizentimes.com.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: JCPenney closing stores in Asheville, other North Carolina sites

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Yahoo
Pinellas asked vacation rentals to play by the rules. A lawsuit is brewing.
Pinellas County officials are hoping to finally clamp down on vacation rentals where unattended trash and loud parties have drawn scorn from neighbors. But one attorney is already threatening to sue the county over the crackdown. Keith Brady, a vacation rental attorney, said that owners and managers of more than 50 rentals have approached him, concerned they'll lose so much income that they'll no longer break even. Pinellas is requiring vacation rental owners living in its unincorporated areas to register for a certificate of use and safety inspection, which costs $600 the first year. It's not the registration component that Brady and the rental owners object to, but a 10-person occupancy limit, on the books since 2018, that could now see stricter enforcement. Brady said owners of seven-bedroom homes were counting on renting out to 16 at a time to pay for monthly mortgage payments. The possible lawsuit against Pinellas highlights the blowback communities across the state face when it comes to holding owners accountable for renting out homes on platforms like Airbnb and VRBO. Rental owners routinely respond to local enforcement with legal threats. Perhaps no community better encapsulates the tension between residents and rental owners than Indian Rocks Beach, a town of about 3,600 that has battled nine lawsuits over rules it enacted two years ago. When Indian Rocks Beach passed an ordinance like Pinellas County's in 2023, Matthew Barrowclough decided to sue. The city has faced seven suits from rental owners, though only one is moving forward. Barrowclough owns four rental units in the city. He says he pays thousands in taxes — but won't pay more to a registration program, costing $450 the first year, that would require him to submit to a city inspection. He also objects to the city's 10-person limit. Barrowclough says Indian Rocks Beach isn't allowed to inspect his home. That authority, he argues, is reserved for the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. He also says the new ordinance illegally treats his rentals as a business, running afoul of past court rulings in the state. Barrowclough's lawsuit stalled, and Hurricane Helene shifted his focus to monthslong repairs on his flooded properties. Earlier this year, Homes Not Hotels, a group opposing illegal short-term rentals, filed two suits against the city. In one, residents demanded that Indian Rocks Beach enforce its law. A month ago, Barrowclough received a $5,000 fine in the mail for failing to register for the city's vacation rental program. 'There was no urgency to do this,' he said. 'All the rebuilding problems, and this is what they're focusing on.' Last Thursday, Denise Houseberg, mayor of Indian Rocks Beach, sat in a meeting room at the Holiday Inn as Barrowclough argued before a special magistrate that the city has no right to enforce its rental rules against him. While Barrowclough had no luck reducing his fine, he vowed to continue flouting the registration program. He plans to appeal the special magistrate's decision. Houseberg fretted over the prospect of legal appeals. 'Just what we need,' she said. 'More lawsuits.' City Hall has been under construction since Hurricane Helene swamped it eight months ago. Dozens must rebuild their homes. Yet it was the consternation over vacation rentals that drove from office Indian Rocks Beach's city manager and city attorney, Houseberg said. 'Everybody's just sick to death and tired of' the back-and-forth over rentals, Houseberg said. 'In this political arena, you try to tell people the truth, and they're like 'No, that's not the truth.'' Laura Lindsay owns vacation rentals in unincorporated Pinellas County and Indian Rocks Beach. So far, Pinellas is doing everything Lindsay wishes Indian Rocks would have done. The county is offering Zoom trainings and educating owners with a dedicated webpage. Those who do not register by the deadline will receive a warning with almost three weeks of grace before fines begin. 'I was watching this tutorial with Pinellas County ... and it's everything people were asking in Indian Rocks,' Lindsay said. 'You should not have to go digging around' to find information on the new rules. But not everyone is satisfied. Brady says county officials haven't returned his emails and phone calls. He said he doesn't want to resort to a lawsuit — but won't let the 10-person limit go unchallenged. He plans to argue that Florida's fire code doesn't allow localities to regulate occupancy in vacation rentals beyond a standard of 150 square feet per person. With that benchmark, a 4,000-square-foot home could fit 26 people. Brady wants to prod the county to accept a looser standard of two people per bedroom, plus two extra in the living areas, with no hard maximum. 'You've got to give us something reasonable,' Brady said. 'There's no need for a lawsuit. Just take your foot off the gas.' Kevin McAndrew, Pinellas' director of building and development review services, said the new ordinance 'is aligned with the requisite state statutes.' He said state law allows localities to inspect rentals for fire safety and restrict occupancy as they see fit. Neighbor complaints against vacation rentals have been mounting for years, McAndrew said. But Pinellas has struggled to track who's renting out for short-term stays. Past rules were 'entirely ineffective because of the lack of a registration requirement,' McAndrew said. 'There was literally no counting or accountability to how many short-term rentals were operating in unincorporated Pinellas.' Now Pinellas is hiring more code enforcement staff and investing in technology that will track rental listings across platforms. Those who repeatedly violate rules around registration, fire safety, noise and trash could face fines of up to $1,000 per day. Unincorporated Pinellas and Indian Rocks Beach face a particularly frustrating limitation. In 2014, the Legislature told localities they couldn't curtail where vacation rentals operate. Cities that had limited nightly rentals to certain parts of town before 2011, like St. Petersburg and Madeira Beach, could keep those restrictions. Everyone else couldn't. Since that law passed, Airbnb's annual revenue has surged from around $400 million in 2014 to $11.1 billion last year. Local officials estimate there are around 2,000 short-term rental owners in unincorporated Pinellas. There are about 3,300 listings for short-term rentals in Indian Rocks Beach, according to AirDNA, a tracking website, though that count includes duplicate ads. As nightly rental platforms have exploded, resident grievances have piled up. Houseberg said she wants a return to home rule but has little faith the Legislature will ever restore cities' right to forbid vacation rentals in residential neighborhoods. So instead, Indian Rocks Beach and unincorporated Pinellas have turned to aggressive registration programs. Local officials hope that, through inspections and civil penalties, they can compel owners to be good neighbors. Will that solution satisfy everyone? Probably not, Houseberg said. 'It doesn't even matter if (short-term rentals) are perfectly behaved,' Houseberg said. 'They're hated anyway. It's gotten so bad here that people are yelling at them on the street, 'Who are you and why are you here?'' But Houseberg said she's trying to be a mayor for everyone. She hopes she can bring rental owners and fuming neighbors to the table to hash out better compromises. Brady said registration programs make sense for cities going after bad actors. He has little sympathy for people shirking the programs entirely. 'There are vacation rentals that are unlicensed, not registered, they're not inspected, and ... they're not paying their taxes,' Brady said. 'And so the vacation rental owners need to understand, (local governments) have a real need to regulate.'


Axios
11 hours ago
- Axios
St. Pete's coffee scene gets a boost as Grove Surf reopens, new pop-up debuts
St. Pete's coffee scene is buzzing again, with new spots pouring in and old favorites returning. Here are some of the latest openings. State of sip: Grove Surf and Coffee reopens Tuesday, almost nine months after Hurricane Helene flooded its St. Pete Beach storefront and right on time to celebrate its fifth anniversary.
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Yahoo
Florida's Public Service Commission should push pause on FPL rate hikes
Recent hurricanes — Helene, Milton and Debby — were strong reminders of the importance of a resilient and reliable electric grid for Florida's families and businesses. Widespread outages and costly storm recovery efforts highlighted the urgent need to strengthen our energy infrastructure. But as we move forward, it's critical that we do so in a way that is effective and fiscally responsible. Florida already has the fourth-highest electric bills in the nation. As demand for power grows and weather patterns become more extreme, modernizing the electric grid is necessary — but it must be done with careful planning and oversight. Long-term investments should be guided by data, not rushed decisions that place higher costs and additional financial strain on consumers. That's why it's important that the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) not get ahead of the comprehensive planning requirements laid out by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in Order 1920. This federal guidance encourages utilities to take a more strategic, long-term approach — one that can help lower costs, reduce outages and ensure reliability. One powerful way to support this smarter approach is through Grid Enhancing Technologies (GETs). A 2023 report by The Brattle Group found that GETs can play a valuable role in improving grid efficiency at every stage of transmission development — before, during and after construction. These technologies can relieve congestion, support system upgrades during construction and improve reliability once projects are completed — all while helping avoid unnecessary or premature capital spending. Opinion: Florida must strengthen its electrical grid before it's too late Despite asking for more time to update their long-term planning frameworks, Florida Power & Light (FPL) is already charging ahead with substantial infrastructure projects. FPL has proposed spending $325 million to rebuild an existing 500-kilovolt transmission line and an additional $700 million on other infrastructure. These are significant investments, and while they may prove beneficial, it's worth asking utilities to demonstrate whether there are more cost-effective options available. FPL's proposed rate increase — nearly 30% by 2029 — would impact households across the state. That's why it's essential regulators take a cautious, transparent approach that prioritizes consumer protection and long-term value. Opinion: Rolling the dice with Mother Nature: Trump's FEMA cuts would be a disaster The chief justice of Florida's Supreme Court recently described the PSC's process as a 'black box' and noted it relies heavily on the utilities' own narratives. Floridians deserve to know that utility investments are grounded in thorough planning, not made hastily or based solely on industry input. Florida's Public Service Commission should press pause on long-term rate hikes until utilities complete cost-effective, data-driven planning as required by FERC. By aligning with FERC's planning requirements and encouraging the use of proven, cost-effective technologies, Florida can build a modern, reliable grid that supports growth and withstands future challenges — without placing an undue burden on ratepayers. Now is the time to plan carefully, invest wisely and ensure every energy dollar delivers real value for the people of Florida. Dawn Shirreffs is the Florida director of the Environmental Defense Fund. This opinion piece was distributed by The Invading Sea, which publishes news and commentary on climate change and other environmental issues affecting Florida. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: FPL shouldn't hike electric rates without proper planning | Opinion