Owner brewing up new plans for Durham's Blue Coffee Café

“I was the first person down here,” she said. “All of the local eateries you see now, no one was here except Blue Coffee.”

But Blue Coffee will be leaving soon.

Developer Austin Lawrence Partners has purchased the Jack Tar Building where the cafe is located. They plan to renovate the building and build a new high rise across the street. It's part of a mixed-use project that will include plenty of room for retail, but not enough for Blue Coffee.

“Our visions never really met,” Mathews said.

Greg Hills of Austin Lawrence suggested Mathews change her business model and scale back her size and scope.

“We talked about a concept that we really want - this deli/convenience store concept,” he said.

Hills says he would have worked with Mathews on developing that business because it's something they really want to see in the space. Mathews says that's not what was presented to her.

“Our conversations never centered on us doing what we’ve been doing for the past nine years,” she said. “It was a spinoff of one of two things, either deserts or energy drinks, but it never had the breakfast, lunch, salad, soup aspect of it. I didn’t want to diminish my vision. My vision has always been to expand it to full service café and to do catering.”

Another issue was rent.

Mathews pays less than $1,500 a month for her prime location. Hill said her the rent would increase by five to eight times that amount if she wanted the same amount of square footage.

She's decided to go elsewhere, and she's asking the community for help. Using customer feedback and the social media website Kickstarter, Mathews is trying to raise $35,000 to build out her new location on 107 N. Church St., just a block and a half away.

It won't be the same corner, she says, but it will still be Blue Coffee.