Durham Development Watchlist - July 2021

It feels like yesterday that I announced that I would not have the same amount of time to dedicate to this blog that I used to due to the impending arrival of twin boys. Now, they are over 6 months old! It's been even longer since I did one of these watchlists.

There have been a couple of reasons aside from sleep deprivation that it has been so long. One is that Caleb Harshberger over at the Triangle Business Journal has been doing an amazing job of staying on top of new development announcements. Another is that development news has seemed a little slow over the past few months.

Welp, that changed this month. Enjoy the updates!


A. Alta Rutherford - 2601 Hillsborough Rd

This is the doozy. The project submitted is called Alta Rutherford. I don't want to jump to any conclusions, but I imagine that means Wood Partners is involved as they use the "Alta" name a lot. They also did Station Nine, not too far away from this site. I can't seem to find the number of units, but this project spans 15 parcels, the biggest of which is the 6+ acre Grey Stone Church parcel. This looks to be a BIG project.

B. Huckleberry - 115 N. Gregson St

This project was one of the ones that Caleb (mentioned above) did a good job of reporting. You can find his article here. I still decided to throw this into the mix, though because I love seeing a small-scale, mixed use, adaptive reuse project in Durham. The Lintons, who are behind this project, appear to be architects turned developers. I love seeing small developers thriving in Durham.

C. Ice Cream Shop - 910 W Main St

This is a small one, but very happy to see another ice cream shop coming! I imagine this is Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream that Bites of Bull City has listed as coming to Brightleaf.

What caught my attention was the address. I was worried that Goorsha was going out of business. But, when I looked it up, there are two different parcels with the 910 W Main St address. Very odd! In addition, the ice cream's 910 W Main has no street frontage. The owner of the parcel also owns the parking lot, so I don't imagine access will ever be an issue, but it struck me as an interesting parcel.

D. Durham ID C4 - 215 Morris St.

Did I "bury the lead" a little here by putting an ice cream shop in front of the next phase of the Durham Innovation District? This project is listed as "new office and lab building on existing site - 178,090 sf new building". That is a significant addition to the square footage of the Durham.ID.

E. Monuts Covered Deck Addition - 1000 Ninth St

MIGHT be ending on the most important development I came across! Monuts adding outdoor seating would be phenomenal. I hope it captures a similar feel as the old Parker & Otis deck that I will miss drinking iced coffee and having breakfast tacos on!

On to Monuts breakfast sandwiches and earl grey donuts on a new deck!

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