Durham Development Watchlist - June 2020
Aside from the GeerHouse bombshell that dropped at the end of last week, I wrangled a small number of additional developments to report, but there are some interesting ones!
A. Happy Pie - 1018 W Main St
Minor renovations, but it looks like a franchise location of https://happypie.com/ coming to the old Papa John's location. I have never tried their pizza, but the "delivery/pick up only" model seems wise right now. I went by the other day and it looks like demo has already started.
B. JJ Henderson Development - 807 S Duke St
"80 unit Multifamily Development with associated surface parking"
I do not know the current state of the plan for JJ Henderson. Originally, there were two pieces of the project. Rehabbing the current building and building a new, 80 unit building. The rehab relied on a 4% tax credit, which is not competitive, so I assume that is moving forward as planned. However, the project did NOT receive the 9% tax credit for the new building (in 2019, no project in Durham received a 9% tax credit, unfortunately).
Despite that, it looks as though the new building is moving forward. I have no idea if they had to shuffle housing bond money around or if future phases will be affected, but it is nice to see there is progress.
C. Moriah Multifamily - 3829 Mt Moriah Rd
"43 Market rate apartments and 8 Affordable units"
This is over by Patterson Place and may not be something I would normally include on this list. However, the eight affordable units intrigues me. I am curious why the developer decided to include affordable units and if there are any lessons to be learned about what motivates developers to include affordable units.
D. Vintage University Apartments - 3002 Petty Rd
"Four apartment buildings (208 Units), associated parking, and utilities along with an expansion of the University Tower parking lot."
It looks as though the "Durham Pickle" aka "Dallas Phallus" is getting new neighbors in the form of residential buildings. It has long been argued that this huge tower outside of the downtown core makes little sense. It will be interesting to see what these residential buildings look like in the area.
E. Harriet's Place - 312 E Umstead St
"Renovation of existing, unoccupied Harriet Tubman YWCA building to provide low income housing: Congregate Living Facility and/or affordable apartment units."
This looks like it is a project from Reinvestment Partners (https://reinvestmentpartners.org/). This building is not in great shape, but you can imagine how cool it might be if redeveloped:
I look forward to seeing the final product and welcoming new, affordable housing to Durham.
