Donut Paradise in Lakewood Shopping Center.
Editor’s note: Sophia Yousun Park, the owner, stopped by to let us know that she is closing because she moved to Flower Mound, and the drive, which began at 2 a.m. daily, she says, has been too difficult to continue. She decided the end of the lease, Feb. 29, would be a good time to close.
Donut Paradise in Lakewood Shopping Center will shutter later this month, although the reason why is a bit murky.
On Saturday a neighbor posted a picture to the Lakewood, Dallas Facebook page of a note he saw by the register at Donut Paradise. It stated that the shop would close on Feb. 29 after a long back-and-forth with “the broker,” which in Lakewood Shopping Center is Lincoln Property Company.
Donut Paradise’s lease is ending and, according to the note, Lincoln first asked the owners to move next door to the space Fan Man occupied until 2010, but Donut Paradise didn’t want to move. At the end of the note, Donut Paradise says they “received an email from our broker that the owner want us to move to different place when our contract is over,” and its unclear if that means somewhere in the shopping center or somewhere else. Either way, the note concludes with, “So we are closing our donut shop on February 29th.”
The Facebook post (click to enlarge)
When I dropped by the donut shop this morning the note was nowhere to be found, but Sophia Yousun Park (the shop’s owner?), confirmed that Donut Paradise will be closing on Feb. 29. Because of a language barrier, she wasn’t able to tell me much more, but she was surprised (and possibility even upset, although it was hard to tell) to learn someone had posted the note about their closure on Facebook.
She explained (and pantomimed) that she lives in Flower Mound, which is a long drive for her every morning. I asked if she hopes to move Donut Paradise to Flower Mound and she said, “Maybe.”
We’ve placed a call with Lincoln Property Company. If they return our call, we’ll update with any insight they provide.
This is the fourth business along Gaston Avenue to close in recent weeks. Dixie House and Unleashed, both tenants of Lincoln Property Company, closed their doors permanently at the end of January. Papa John’s closed up shop that same week, but plans to re-open on Greenville in the coming weeks.
