Indy: More signs of Ben Benson's to American Tobacco

With the financial travails of the daily newspapers, folks sometimes wonder where digging, investigative, beyond-the-press-release reporting will come from down the line. In the Triangle, at least, one outlet for that is the Independent Weekly.

And bully for the Indy's David Fellerath for diving into building permits and pulling out still more confirmation that Manhattan steakhouse Ben Benson's is looking to open its first restaurant outside of New York in the Bull City.

The long-rumored arrival of a high-end steakhouse in Durham's American Tobacco Campus appears to be a step closer to materializing. On July 30, the Durham City-County planning office issued a building permit to contractor Bovis Lend Lease to commence a $2 million renovation of the campus' three-story "Powerhouse," located at the center of the complex, just north of the water tower.

The job description on the permit is for "Ben Bensons Steakhouse—Upfit at the Powerhouse building." The cost of the job is given at $1,968,507. Construction activity has been under way at the site for months, and currently the building appears to be gutted. There is no visible signage at the site.

As Fellerath notes in his between-issues story posted to the Indy's web site on Friday, American Tobacco refuses to confirm any signed tenants, and a spokesperson for the single-outlet Ben Benson's told Fellerath that plans were not final, and that "the opening has been 'put off.'"

Still, we here at BCR are intrigued by the use of the word "upfit" on the building permit. It's a term uniquely tied to the renovations and customizations a landlord does for a specific tenant, in this case one which is using almost half of the power plant facility in the heart of the district.

Specifically, the building permit is for renovations to 12,277 sq. ft. -- almost the amount of floor plan that Capitol Broadcasting leasing agent CB Richard Ellis lists as leased in the structure. (CBRE's web site notes the 4-story Power Plant building has 26,760 sq. ft., of which 14,328 are available still for lease.)

If CBC has contracted for upfit on the space and listed Ben Benson's on the building permit, either the steakhouse is a committed tenant and the powers that be are just waiting for the right time to make the announcement of Durham's worst kept secret -- BCR first broke the steakhouse reports back in March, when seemingly half of the downtown community was talking about it -- or young Michael Goodmon is about to get an earful from dad Jim on the power of negotiation.

Comments

[Will]

Kevin, did you intend this post have tongue-in-cheek overtones? "...digging, investigative, beyond-the-press-release reporting will come from down the line." About a restaurant???? :)

[hovercraft]

Let the man smoke crack on a Saturday if'n he wants.

[Bull City Rising]

Will & Hovercraft: Hah, point well taken. Though I should note that the tip of the hat was less towards the subject matter than the methods. Going and pulling building permits and filed site plans is good ol' city hall reporting at its best, but something that daily print journalists don't have time to do with regularity. (Not a dig on Gronberg, Milliken or Dees -- it's just the reality, I suspect, of having to file multiple stories daily and/or cover lots of different beats.)

The difficulty us bloggers have is getting the time off to go do this kind of work. Heck, I've got three matters in particular that I'm itching to make it down to City Hall to dig up (two building projects, one City contract.) That stuff should get found by the projo's, not the amateurs -- but economic pressures sometimes get in the way.

So the hat's off (or was that tipped? ah, useful cliches) to D.F. and the Indy for finding out something like this. Not so much about the subject as the methods.

[aburtch]

There were rumors of a high-end steakhouse going into the Powerhouse building over two years ago. At the time I was working at a company located on the campus and people were excited to get a steakhouse in there. But when there was no movement on renovating the building, it looked to be just a rumor. Hopefully this bit of new information turns out to be on the mark.

I also found this article on the topic published in the Triangle Business Journal last Friday with quotes from the players involved:
http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2008/08/25/story6.html?b=1219636800^1689382
(not affiliated in any way, just thought it adds to the conversation)

[GreenLantern]

Holy Cow!!...literally!

Take a look at those prices! $47 for a sirloin!?

From Ben Benson's website, the place reminds me of The Palm in Chicago, often frequented by mobsters of the "Sopranos" crowd. HUGE portions of basic meat,lobster, potatoes, & veggies enough to feed three people off of a single entree! No foo-foo monstrosities of garnish and raspberry pickle almondine al francais, etc, etc., ....just plain old MAN FOOD to feed those hungry baseball players from out of town!....."Hit Bull, Win Steak"!

I'll have to start saving up some serious change before I can wander in.

[durhamfood]

I doubt the prices will be as high as that. Compare this to Bin 54 and Angus Barn, where steaks for two go for the high 60's and low 70's.