Investors buy, plan renovations for Snow Building

Both the N&O and the Herald-Sun have good articles on the purchase of the Snow Building downtown by three investors with Duke ties.

This particular deal is a real win for downtown and for the future of the building. For one thing, the preservation of the building's current use -- which is focused on providing smaller office suites that can attract solo practitioners and the creative class -- is a boon for a downtown whose renaissance started in the city center thanks to the efforts of individual pioneers long before big corporations and institutions set up roosts in peripheral spaces like American Tobacco.

In that light, the improvements planned for the building, including basement storage space and a conference room that can be jointly scheduled and shared by the occupants, are really natural and smart upgrades to this space. After all, if you're a CPA, attorney, or architect, you don't want to lease 800 sq. ft just to have a conference room you rarely use; better to pay a smaller share in your lease rate and CAM and use it when needed. Ditto for the addition of wireless Internet service, which allows individual tenants to get basic connectivity without leaning on the IT department they don't have.

Other modernizations, including new paint, refurbished floors, and updated restrooms (which as Monica Chen points out in the Herald-Sun will actually provide men's and women's restrooms on each floor -- a long overdue change) should help make the building more attractive to new tenants.

The focus on renovating the building with an eye towards maintaining its suite size while improving its draw to prospective tenants is, to my mind, to be expected from a new ownership team with real ties to downtown.

One of the investors, Carey Greene, also has strong ties to downtown, as a board member with Durham Central Park and as a former member of the development team over at West Village. I've had the chance to meet and talk with Carey through the blog and have found him to be one of the most passionate advocates for Durham in general and its city center in particular.

It's good to see the Snow Building pass into such capable hands.

One can be certain the investors' eye on the market is occasionally glancing over towards their neighbor at American Tobacco -- an easy view from the Snow Building's tall perch -- where Capitol Broadcasting and SBER are adding small office suites on the first floor of the Old Bull building, the remainder of which is destined for apartments.

Certainly the Snow Building team has a cost advantage; even with planned renovations costing one-third more than the reported purchase price of the building, I'd expect their cost basis and resulting rental rates to sit well below Ambacco, where the developer deferred the ancient Old Bull building as the last of the old factory buildings for renovation, given the expense of rehabbing the
challenging structure.

The best part of the rehab work, though, is the news that longtime elevator Ronald Chester will keep his job as the last manual elevator operator in the Triangle, and perhaps all of North Carolina, putting to rest the initial fears about the loss of the manual elevators in the building. The addition of one automated lift while preserving the second shaft for the manual device is a plus for preserving history in the Bull City, and the building's character to boot.

Comments

[Phil]

I wish the new Snow folks well in their venture.

Running shared office space of any sort is a big challenge which I took on for a year or so back in the mid-90s (in exchange for my "rent" in suite). I've seen two or three other places that tried to do (or are doing) the same thing in other buildings in downtown Durham (most notably, the old public library next door to First Presbyterian).

It's no easy task, and unless you are much smarter and/or much more experienced than I, the margins are very slim in a biz where optimal scheduling isn't easy. For example, the conference room: there's always a good chance that it'll either be overbooked all the time ("nobody goes there anymore because it's too crowded"), or else never used because the price is too high for the perceived quality, or else it's too hard to schedule because the management hasn't figured out a good way to do this online, etc. etc.

I don't mean to say it can't be done. I just mean to say that office space logistics is no easy task, and I tip my hat to anyone who can make it happen. In an old building. With tenants who are used to paying very attractive rates. While maintaining the employ of the Triangle's last elevator operator. Hat. Is. Off!

[Toby]

That's good news.

But given that the building will continue to be "focused on providing smaller office suites that can attract solo practitioners and the creative class", it may need to be rebranded to generate some buzz.

Hmmmm...

Ooh, I've got it! They could rename it "The Blazer Manpurse Building"!

[Peter]

As one that signed a lease for one of the Old Bull Executive Suites several months ago, this is great news. The popularity of the these suites, as evidenced by the activity at AT and WV, will help insure that the Snow Building project will succeed. I can't wait!

[David McMullen]

Phil: There are some good software tools out there that make managing this kind of shared office space easier. In fact, I've developed some tools for a previous employer for online management of this kind of shared space. Yes, it's a challenge, but it can be done, and there are people in the area with the expertise to do it (myself among them).

You've halfway tempted me to contact the Snow Building partners to see if they need this kind of talent. I could put my old team back together in a snap...