A place for UK students to study, get coffee and meet up with friends announced Thursday its doors are closing.

Coffea, located on the corner of Rose Street and Avenue of Champions, said in a Facebook post made on Thursday that its last day of operation will be Sunday, June 12. Coffea was opened for nine years. 

The coffee shop is the third business to close on that corner, with Sweet Mango and Campus Café announcing their closings in the past few months.

General Manager Will Hurst knew from owner David Lee closing was a possibility since last fall. 

“While I’m very surprised about how abrupt the whole thing went down, I wasn’t utterly surprised,” Hurst said. 

Hurst said Lee told him on Thursday to close the store that day, but Hurst talked Lee out of the idea so loose ends could be tied. Lee agreed to do so and has since talked about a small severance pay for the coffee shop’s workers. 

Hurst does not know any future plans Coliseum Plaza, LLC, the group that owns the entire building Coffea is housed in, has for the property.

“I think what happened – and this is just my opinion – I don’t know what happened, but I think that David realized because he is leaving, it would just be better to sell out,” Hurst said. Lee is moving from Lexington, according to Hurst.

In the past, when Hurst travelled for long periods of time, he would end up with a job at Coffea when he returned to Lexington. 

“Coffea harkens back to an old-school idea of what a coffeehouse is,” Hurst said. “It doesn’t try to be Starbucks or some variation of Starbucks.”

Hallie Decker, assistant general manager of Coffea, heard the news Thursday morning when Hurst called her.

“It’s an enormous shock to all of us,” Decker said. Coffea had events planned as soon as Monday, which was a reading event. Another event for the summer included an eight-week yoga course that would have benefited Bluegrass Rape Crisis Center.

Now, Decker is making sure Coffea employees have a job to move onto after Coffea’s closing. As of now, there are no plans from employees to re-open a similar coffee shop.

Decker started working at the shop about a year and a half ago and said she has seen the shop through its “ups and downs.” She said business usually slowed down in the summer, but during the fall and spring semesters, lines could be backed up into the shop’s second room.

“Many students used this as another library or another office,” Decker said. “During the spring and fall semesters, there’s not a single chair that isn’t being used.”

Decker said the coffee shop had a strong sense of community. She said employees often know customers by names and their orders and Decker has even known couples who have met in the shop and later gotten married.

Cody Putman, a recent UK graduate, was a customer of Coffea since he was in high school before becoming a barista at the coffee shop a few months ago. He said one of his favorite memories from working in the coffee shop was during one of UK’s snow days last semester. Coffea was one of the few coffee shops open that day and said the store was packed with customers seeking “refuge” from the cold.

“It was really nice because it showed even on a day like that, we all still wanted to come to the shop and hang out,” Putman said. He plans to keep in contact with other Coffea employees.

Decker said for the rest of the weekend, Coffea is running a special on their version of affogato, which is double espresso over ice cream. The dessert will cost $2.75.

Editor’s Note: An update was made to this article to include comments from Will Hurst.