DURHAM, N.C. — After months of delayed construction, Boxyard RTP is now open for customers.

What You Need To Know

Boxyard is located in the Research Triangle. Entrepreneurs serve customers out of their individual shipping containers

Boxyard RTP is following Durham County’s masking guidelines for indoor vendor spaces

Businesses are open Tuesdays through Saturdays

Jackie Morin just opened her cotton candy business, Wonderpuff. It took her about a year to open this storefront because of delays from the pandemic, but she took it as an opportunity.

"It gave us some time to perfect our product, perfect our craft," Morin said. "While we were waiting, we shipped our cotton candy throughout the entire country, so that was really fun. We have never made that much cotton candy in our lives.”

Morin says she's proud to represent her Muslim culture by offering the cotton candy halal style.

"Halal is exactly like kosher ... so not only is our sugar kosher, it's also halal so it's accessible to everyone," Morin said.

Morin proudly considers herself a cotton candy connoisseur and says she started the business with her partner in hopes of creating generational wealth.

"What made us start Wonderpuff in the first place was to create our own sustainable living. Jobs are asking a lot from people and not paying a living wage. It's important that we create our own generational wealth during a time where sustainability is scarce," Morin said.

The flavors of cotton candy are just as eclectic as Morin's shop and include, mango, Haitian cake and blueberry waffle among others.

"Pure bliss, and joy and happiness. Our intentions when building our shop was to make it super colorful and vibrant, because our cotton candy doesn't have any color. So we make up for the colorless cotton candy by putting color all over the walls, the ceiling, the floor," Morin said.

Morin says community support is key right now as business owners face uncertainty because of the COVID-19 delta variant.

“It just feels like we need everyone to show up and show out before we may potentially be on lockdown again. So right now, I feel like what we want from our community is just to show up,” she said.

Businesses in Boxyard RTP are open Tuesdays through Saturdays, masks are required inside.