Highlights: Tonight's OND forum with local developers

The Old North Durham Neighborhood Association held a potluck dinner discussion with representatives of several local developers/builders who are active in the Central Park/old Durham Athletic Park area. Over 100 Durhamites -- primarily from OND, but with folks from just about every urban neighborhood in the Bull City -- turned out to hear representatives from Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse, Trinity Place Partners/W Architecture, and Traditional Neighborhood Development Partners talk about their projects.

The hour-plus conversation touched on a number of subjects, too many to cover in a single blog post.  I'll come back to tonight's meeting with more detailed updates throughout the week, but here are some of the highlights and headlines:

• The DAP plan is back to "basics" with the city uninterested in exploring the $11 million dollar proposal first floated by SBER, which would have included significant development beyond the ballpark itself.  SBER will be holding multiple public input meetings to get a sense of what the community wants to see in the DAP, the $4 million, bond-funded renovation of which will focus on restoring the ballpark itself for use NC Central, the Parks & Rec department, several festivals, and as a training ground and possibly museum for Minor League Baseball.  The goal is to start construction in late summer/early fall and be open in April '08.  Despite the closer focus on the ballpark itself, SBER is continuing to acquire other properties in the vicinity of the DAP, but will be looking to develop those independently of the ballpark project per se.
• SBER reports that two buildings in Phase II of the American Tobacco project currently wrapping up on the north side of Blackwell St. will feature residential with first-floor retail, both of which are new concepts for the historic district.  Currently under development are 17 condo units and 53 apartments.  With a waiting list of -- one of the big shockers of the night -- more than 300 people for these units.
• Most of the units in the Trinity Lofts project have been pre-sold; the unit at the very corner of Trinity and Washington is being studied for possible corner store or coffeeshop use, as is the old railroad house by the train overpass.  Trinity Place Partners expect completion in August '07, and is already trying to buy properties to the south of Trinity Lofts for future redevelopment.
• Central Park district land/business-owner Denny Clark has founded a cooperative group of developers who are planning work in the DAP district.  The so-called Durham Athletic Park Planning Associates, or DAPaPA, is focusing on closer collaboration between development efforts in the area, including compatible uses where possible.

It was great to see Old North Durham bring the community and developers together for a very positive and open discussion and to hear more about DAPaPA and what stakeholders themselves are doing.  It's certainly stepping into the breech of city leadership on the effort, since as one panelist put it today: "They [city leaders] won't stand in your way.  But they're not giving the leadership on this."

Some additional background and updates from the omnipresent Jim Wise (does he ever take a vacation?) in the Raleigh paper's Saturday Durham  occasional.

Comments

[GK]

Didn't know you were there as well - nice job covering the details. I was under the impression that Trinity Lofts said Aug. 07 as the completion date, because I thought that was going to be a push. Perhaps I heard incorrectly.

[GK]

I linked to your post here.

[Bull City Rising]

Gary -- thanks for the compliment and the link. We'll have to meet up in person at one of these things! You're absolutely right about the Trinity Lofts wrapping up in August 2007; that was in error and I've corrected it in the blog post.

Your comments over at Endangered Durham on the need for better planning and support of cohesive, comprehensive neighborhood plans are right on track. I hope you're right that we'll get more of that under Bell's vision for the city this year -- and that his 'refocusing' doesn't mean that the planning will drop concurrently with the public funding.