A longtime store in the Bronco Midtown shopping center on Murchison Road could close later this month.

Hafeena Ali-Martinez, owner of the dollar store and Frulato dessert shop Feena’s since 2005, received a letter from Grant-Murray Property Management on Tuesday saying her lease would not be renewed and she must vacate the building by Sept. 5.

The Army veteran, known in Fayetteville as “Miss Feena,” said she wasn’t sure if she would close the store this month.

“It breaks my heart,” she said on Wednesday. “I’m depressed.”

Ali-Martinez, 60, of Trinidad, said when she opened her business nearly 20 years ago, the Murchison Road neighborhood was known for drugs and violence, and most business owners would not open stores in this historically African-American corridor of the city.

Now, she said, she fears her lease will be terminated to make room for other chains in the mall, such as McAlister’s Deli, which opened a few years ago, and Chick-fil-A, which is scheduled to open this fall.

Over the past two decades, Ali-Martinez and her business have experienced many ups and downs.

She faced pandemic-related closures and increasing competition from the short-lived Walmart Neighborhood Market on Murchison Road. Most recently, she said she received resistance from property management over logos in Feena’s windows and her occasional giveaways.

Unlike McAlister’s Deli, a fellow tenant in Bronco Midtown, her business has never benefited from Fayetteville State University’s “Bronco Bucks” system, which allows students to purchase food with money from their university meal plans, Ali-Martinez said.

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Despite these setbacks, Feena’s has managed to build a loyal following among Fayetteville State University students, Fort Liberty soldiers and local families, said the mother of two, so the store’s closure would be a sad occasion.

“I thought, ‘Oh my God, am I going to have to go out like this? Am I going to have to get kicked out?'” Ali-Martinez said.

Fayetteville State Administrator Says He Is ‘Not Involved’ in Bronco Midtown Management

Wesley T. Fountain, a Fayetteville state administrator who is listed as the registered agent for Bronco Development, the mall’s owner, said Wednesday that he is “not involved in the management of the mall.”

He said he had no insight into the comings and goings of Bronco Midtown tenants and did not know who at the university might be involved.

“This is the first I’ve heard of this,” he said. “I haven’t spoken to Feena.”

Grant-Murray property manager Becki Ross did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Ali-Martinez kept the store open despite deaths in the family and breast cancer

The shop owner’s personal life was turbulent, she said. She kept the store open while mourning the deaths of her father and two of her brothers and battling breast cancer for years.

“I went to radiation at 5 a.m. and then came here to open the store,” Ali-Martinez said.

She said she was grateful that the disease was now in remission after several surgeries and rounds of radiation.

“I have always fought for my life,” she said.

Ali-Martinez has worked his way up from humble beginnings

Ali-Martinez grew up in Trinidad and Tobago and said she immigrated to the United States at age 19 with only $500 in her pocket.

She joined the Army at age 20, was deployed to Iraq during the Gulf War and eventually stationed at Fort Liberty. Ali-Martinez said she retired for medical reasons in 2003 and has made the Fayetteville area her home.

A few years later, she opened a dollar store and art gallery across from her alma mater, Fayetteville State, in Bronco Midtown.

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A few years ago, she started offering ice cream, smoothies and frulato, a frozen fruit dessert similar to Italian ice cream.

Ali-Martinez said she has given away backpacks every fall and served Christmas meals to locals in need every winter. She said she has donated thousands of dollars worth of school supplies and food.

What’s next for Feena’s?

The future of the Murchison Road store is uncertain, Ali-Martinez said.

“I’m not sure what I’m going to do,” she said. “I don’t want to go.”

Ali-Martinez is currently planning a location on Reilly Road that she hopes to open in the fall. Part of it will be the Feena’s Frulato shop that Fayetteville has come to love so much, and part of the building will be commercial kitchen space for rent, she said.

Food, dining and culture reporter Taylor Shook can be reached at [email protected]. Want weekly food news delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the Fayetteville Foodies newsletter.

This article originally appeared in the Fayetteville Observer: Feena’s in Fayetteville could close when lease expires in early September