Durham Food Co-op building sold, gets new life as alternative medicine space

The Durham Food Co-op's days running a grocery market have been over for some months now, but the co-op's building on W. Chapel Hill St. has remained in the DFC's hands as the organization has sought a buyer for the facility.

Now comes word that the building is entering new hands -- those of Nick Hawthorne-Johnson and his mother, who own and operate Bull City Restorations and have done work throughout the Burch Ave. and West End neighborhoods of Durham, renovating and restoring old homes.

In a conversation on Thursday, Hawthorne-Johnson noted that he plans to open an acupuncture clinic in the space after its renovation. The Indy's Fiona Morgan has more details on the alt-weekly's Triangulator blog:

Hettie Johnson and her son Nick Hawthorne-Johnson have purchased the building under strict terms that preserve its murals for at least 15 years. The deed also stipulates that the building not be used to sell alcohol (for off-site consumption), tobacco, weapons or pornography, nor can it be used as a pawn shop....

The 1,460-square foot building had previously been home to a live music venue in the 1980s. Johnson purchased the building for $160,000 this week.

Christine Westfall, who is on the Durham Food Co-op’s board, laments the loss of the building but says she and the other co-op members are pleased to see one of their own taking it over.

“Our mission has always been to serve the community, so have the building go to this community acupuncture clinic was within the spirit of the kind of use we wanted the space put to,” she says.

The Indy notes that the DFC will continue to use a portion of the building for their food buying club, which is the post-retail iteration of the DFC's existence.

The new owners will be selling the remaining fixtures in the W. Chapel Hill St. space this Saturday from 10 am to 4 pm to clear the space and to raise money for the new venture -- which won't happen for eighteen months, long after Hawthorne-Johnson and his girlfriend, Row Design's Rochelle Woodward, complete an eight-month driving trip to Buenos Aires, a February through September planned perambulation through the U.S. and Central and South America.

(Learn more about Hawthorne-Johnson and Woodward's plans at their blog, Ramble Writer.)

Comments

[Michael Bacon]

Not sure where Fiona got the 1.4k sq. ft. number, but the building is closer to 3.5k. I wonder if she looked up the parcel with the city, which would be misleading, as the building actually straddles two tax parcels, with a third for the parking lot.

[Jeremy T]

I live nearby, and I was really hoping to see a business in this space that would draw a good number of people to West Chapel Hill St. on a regular basis. A restaurant, a bar, a normal small grocery store, a coffee shop... the retail area here needs much more regular traffic to reach a critical mass and start turning around. Acupuncture just ain't going to generate that kind of volume.

That said, I wish these folks well in their venture, even if it's not what I was hoping for. In these economic times, beggars can't be choosers, and it's certainly better for the area than leaving the structure vacant.

[Rob]

Jeremy-
The problem with all of those proposals is zoning. The DFCO has ~6 parking spaces, and it would need ~35 to become a restaurant/coffee shop. On-street and public parking doesn't count, and there are virtually no empty lots left to be bought and turned into private parking ala 9th St or Brightleaf (there are plenty of underutilized lots, but that is a different story). This is one of the reasons that Piper's pulled out of the original deal.

I didn't know that the new owners were waiting 18 months to do something with that property. I wonder if they'd be willing to rent it out at an affordable rate for someone else to use as office space in the interim. The last thing we need on that strip is a vacant storefront to accent the storefront churches and the Murder Mart.

A survey from a decade ago showed that the area couldn't thrive off of neighborhood traffic alone. With Burch Ave, Morehead, and the West End undergoing transitions, I bet now it would support more retail.

But, as a concluding thought, I am glad to hear that there is something happening in the space. An alternative medicine shop sounds like something that would probably do well in the area.

[Rob]

Oh yeah, and regarding the bar proposal--

There will never be a bar on WCHS. At least with the current zoning requirements and the high number of churches on WCHS. The house next to Absolute Automotive is a 'church', and we have ARIC and Immaculate Conception right down the street.

(both ARIC and Immaculate Conception, [and the Methodist? church across the street from it] are good influences in the neighborhood, btw. They have events going on daily, so they don't sit unused all week. And ARIC is actually re-habbing their space to turn it into office or retail space, and they are moving a bit south toward NCCU. I just didn't want anyone thinking that I consider those places to be storefront churches)