Update: Polar Chill has since re-opened.

Over the past three years, Polar Chill snow cone shop has become a fixture in the neighborhood around Hillcrest and Arapaho, serving up frozen treats at school carnivals and other community events. The drive-thru stand in the Hillcrest Village shopping center closes for the season Oct. 31 but this time, it won’t be back.

John Rutledge, senior vice president of Venture Commercial which leases the property, said in September that there’s a new vision in the works for Hillcrest Village, and it includes getting rid of free-standing kiosks. He said Polar Chill would likely be forced out.

“The problem is, when you have little kiosks, the place tends to look a little junky,” Rutledge said. “It hampers visibility. His building is an eyesore.”

Starla Turnbo of SMI Realty, the Houston-based company that owns the property, echoed that the stand is no longer atheistically pleasing, however, the owner was given plenty of options.

“We never forced him out,” she says.

Instead of renewing his one-year lease, she offered him a month-to-month lease and space elsewhere in the shopping center where he could install a drive-thru window.

Those options were simply too expensive for the snow cone shop’s owner Tony Atchison. The rent for a normal storefront is almost triple what he was paying before, and it’s way more space than he needs for his small operation. Relocating from his 300-square-foot stand is easier said than done.

“You don’t need that much space, so trying to find something that’s affordable, it’s mind boggling.”

Atchison says his shop draws about 50,000 people to the shopping center each year. He has a loyal following, especially in the nearby school communities.

Tony Vasquez is a parent at Prestonwood Elementary. Polar Chill works the annual carnivals free of charge, donating 100 percent of proceeds to the school’s fund to send fifth graders to Sky Ranch. Vasquez’s 11-year-old daughter wrote Atchison a poem of gratitude that hangs one the wall near the menu.

“He has given us everything and never asked for a penny,” Vasquez says. “They’re pushing someone out of the community, but the community wants him.”

Atchison says some neighbors are looking to start petitioning at schools like JJ Pearce, Richardson High School and Parkhill Junior High to illustrate how many people want the shop to stay.

But Polar Chill isn’t the only kiosk in the center. The Dog Stop, which we featured in our October dining section, is also free-standing and has been there more than 20 years. Turnbo says it’s on a long-term lease that won’t be renegotiated for some time.

So, if you’re looking to grab a Louisiana-style snow cone from Polar Chill, you better get one this month before the shop is gone for good.