After 93 years on Church Street, Lippa’s Estate and Fine Jewelry has announced that it will close its Burlington store and move to Colchester, where it will be open by appointment only.

In an interview with Seven Days on Tuesday, owner Michael Berger cited several reasons for the move: difficulty finding qualified employees, the desire to lessen demands on his time, plans to focus more on wholesale business and the social ills vexing downtown Burlington. Aggressive panhandling and open drug use have deterred tourists as well as local shoppers, who have told Berger that they are afraid to come downtown, he said.

“I hear that all the time from clients,” he said. “I’ve never not felt safe down here,” he said.

Lippa’s was started by Berger’s great-great-uncle Myer Lippa in 1933 and has remained in the family since then. The store occupied two other spots on the street before settling at 112 Church Street. The family also operated a store in Plattsburgh that closed in the 1980s, Berger said.

Berger, 50, grew up in the business. After earning a graduate gemologist degree from Gemological Institute of America in Carlsbad, Calif., he worked as a gemologist and buyer for a high-end jeweler in San Francisco before returning to Vermont to take over the family business in 2020 when his father, Jeffrey, retired.

Berger will retain his single employee when he moves. He expects the downtown store to close in August and the Colchester location, in an office building at 463 Mountain View Drive, to open shortly after. It will feature a private showroom. It will continue to sell primarily estate jewelry and offer custom design work, Berger said.

In an email to clients and friends, Berger thanked them for their loyalty and patronage and advertised the “sale of the century.”