After 10 years on the Country Club Plaza, Bang & Olufsen plans to relocate in early 2010.
The retailer of luxury televisions and music systems will move to the Crossroads Arts District, 1901 Main St.
Highwoods Properties officials couldn't be reached for comment.
Owner Kirk Patton said the reasons for the relocation are "manifold."
"There's the deterioration of the quality of traffic on the Plaza," he said. "In 1999 people would come to a place like the Plaza to be introduced to a luxury brand. That has changed. Now you are seeing less and less of that kind of business, and fewer and fewer of those kind of customers."
He said it is mostly locally owned retailers like Scandia Down, Halls and Tivol that still offer the "true luxury experience."
Since his shop is mostly surrounded by national retailers, consumers also conclude it is a corporate store. However, it is an independently owned dealership.
"The Crossroads has diversity in ownership, diversity in management, and I will have a local landlord," he said. "When you work hard every month and have to send that rent check away I would rather send it to someone local than some company in North Carolina."
Local commercial property developer Diane Botwin owns the building at the southeast corner of 19th and Main streets.
Bang & Olufsen has two full-time employees, a master electrician, and Beo, a three-month-old kitten found this summer by Plaza electricians working on the holiday lights.
Beo is now the store's official greeter.
"We have business cards on the way for her," Patton said.
The Plaza just isn't what it used to be. I look forward to visiting Beo at the Crossroads.