Since opening in May of 1990, No Place Like Home, located at 1685 Bonanza Drive, has been wrapping gifts in its kitchen and home accessory store.

Now, however, it is wrapping up business – for good.

According to owner Terry Frank, last year when the stores lease expired with landlord Bonanza Property, LLC, owned by Mark J. Fischer, instead of renewing a seven-year lease, like usual, a one-year option is all the owner could offer.

"After signing the new lease I knew it was just a matter of time before we would be shutting down," Frank said. "Business was great the first 20 years, but the last five have been too tough to bear. The owner has been working with us, you know, as far as rent payments, and not demanding them, so we have been able to move along."

With the lease-renewal date approaching, Frank got the bad news he was expecting on March 29. The property owner had found a new business to house in the location, leaving No Place Like Home without a home as of June 30.

Jill Packham, property manager for Bonanza Property, explained during an interview with The Park Record, that rent had been lowered four times to help with problems that had been hurting business. After working with Frank as much as the firm could, the debt owed had become too much to ignore, she said.

A local business in need to relocate, approached Bonanza Property earlier this year about leasing the location – a decision they couldn’t resist.

"At that point we didn’t have a choice to not move forward with a new tenant," Packham said. "We’ve loved working with Terry over the years, and think he is a great guy, but as business owners, we need to be smart, not nice."

A gradual loss in sales over the past five years has left the store’s numbers at half of what they once were.

According to Frank, in 2007 when the economy started to teeter, a number of other problems followed, making it impossible for the business to recover. In recent years, the store, which calls itself a gift shop that offers housewares and kitchen supplies, hasn’t remained as unique as it once was in the area.

"With the development of Kimball Junction, loss to internet sales and the abundance of competition in the area, business just hasn’t been what it used to be," Frank said. "Construction on Bonanza Drive three summers in a row didn’t help, either."

During the summers of 2009 and 2010, City Hall redid the busy road, installing the pedestrian-bicyclist tunnel underneath Bonanza Drive, also installing a water line along the route.

The work, which was supposed to last the two summers, crawled into 2011, cost the store customers, according to Frank.

"Our bread and butter is during the winter, like most businesses in the area. But, we only account for 25 percent of our sales at that time, so losing three summers of business wasn’t something we could recover from," Frank said.

The store is holding a liquidation sale as the closing day approaches.

"We are trying to get everything off the shelves to help square away as much of our debt as possible," Frank said. "For the quality of merchandise we have, it’s rare to see this type of stuff on sale."

After 23 years of business with No Place Like Home, Frank explained his beginning in retail started long before the store opened, but he is hesitant to give it another go in the future.

"Everything kind of fell into place, and I don’t think I would have been able to keep going even if we renewed the lease, so leaving now is probably the right move," Frank said. "We have a lot of great memories and I’d like to wrap up business in an orderly manner, so Park City can help us celebrate all the years we have been open."