The owner of Voyager’s Dream, a longtime Fry Street-area novelty shop, has announced that he will close his store at year’s end.

Mike Sutton e-mailed his close friends two weeks ago about the possibility before announcing his decision Thursday.

“It’s been wearing on my mind for a while,” Sutton said.

Daytime traffic in his store has dropped precipitously in the past two years. Even if the area redevelops, Sutton doesn’t hold out much hope for the next two years.

“Fry Street used to be a hub of independent stores,” Sutton said, adding that a shift to fast-food restaurants changed the area, too.

“After Kharma Café closed, there were no places to sit down and talk to friends,” Sutton said. “With the whole area, you meet at night. The bar scene is not conducive to building community.”

Art major Kyndell Upton of Allen had looked around inside Voyager’s Dream a few times but was unaware that it was closing. Although she still meets friends at Lucky Lou’s, she felt the loss of community most when The Tomato pizzeria closed. She is skeptical of redevelopment if it includes national chains.

“Part of Denton’s hip feel is the sense of artistic community, and it’s centered here,” Upton said of the Fry Street area.

Houston-based United Equities Inc. bought most of the properties along Welch, Oak, Fry and Hickory streets in May 2006. By the following May, stores and restaurants on those properties had been evicted.

Sutton said traffic in his store had dropped by 50 percent at that point.

The developer continued to draw up plans that hinged on a CVS pharmacy as an anchor, against a backdrop of increasing community backlash. In late June 2007, the day before the main block of Fry Street buildings was scheduled to be demolished, the building where The Tomato had been was set ablaze.

Sutton said traffic in his store dropped even more after that.

By summer’s end, as gas and food prices skyrocketed, the college students who were his core customers weren’t even buying incense sticks anymore.

“When you can’t sell a $1 item, you know you’re in trouble,” he said.

United Equities told the Denton Record-Chronicle in August that without a CVS lease, which won’t be possible without the drive-through opposed by a majority of Denton City Council members, the Fry Street Village project remains on hold.

Mayor Pro Tem Pete Kamp said she couldn’t understand why United Equities chose to tear down viable businesses and buildings before they knew what it would put in their places.

“That decision still just baffles me,” Kamp said. Long term, however, she said the property is valuable and viable.

Council member Joe Mulroy agreed, saying that it was unfortunate the developer didn’t understand the community. Add to that a sinking economy, and the Fry Street area’s recovery would take longer and likely do collateral damage to other businesses, he said. But, the recovery could bring quality retail and living spaces to the area.

“Hopefully, the wait will be worthwhile,” Mulroy said.

Sutton flirted with the idea of hanging on for another two years — for the much-rumored time frame for the area to redevelop — but he didn’t want to let his business get that lean.

“I’d have to let go of all my employees and do it all myself,” Sutton said.

Since he owns the building, he “could make it work,” he said, “but I want to walk on my terms.”

He’s put his house on the market and he’s downsizing his life, like pretty much everyone else.

He’ll likely live in one of the apartments above the shop and rekindle his itinerant business, selling his wares at fairs and festivals.

“I’m going back to my roots,” Sutton said. “It doesn’t take me much to live.”

PEGGY HEINKEL-WOLFE can be reached at 940-566-6881. Her e-mail address is pheinkel-wolfe@dentonrc.com .