Morgan Imports owner gets street closure near downtown, plans "future development"

If there's one lesson we've all learned from Gary Kueber's Endangered Durham blog, it's that wherever you turn in the Bull City today, the echoes and shadows of yesterday lurk, sometimes in overgrown bushes, abandoned curb cuts, interrupted streets and the like.

For as many times as I've driven south on Gregson St., passing Brightleaf Square and the railroad tracks of doom on the way to NC 147 or American Tobacco, I've paid little attention to the parking lots and infernal Bill Fields properties south of W. Chapel Hill St.; it's far easier to become focused on swift-changing traffic and the status of the stop light to pay much attention.

I never bothered to go west on Pettigrew, for instance, which runs less than a block on the south side of the railroad tracks before turning into Wilkerson Ave., which itself passes through the edge of what must have once been a perfectly normal neighborhood -- before the Durham Freeway came along, that is, and cut a swath through the heart of central Durham.

These days, you will find Brightleaf Square employees parking in the Terry Sanford-controlled lots near Pettigrew & S. Gregson, or Duke buses rolling down the street to a university bus depot nestled between the freeway and the railroad tracks.

Between these two points, you'll find not much of interest -- just some weedy, overgrown lots with two aged, decaying historic homes. A billboard sits along the freeway-facing side of the area, whose only interruption is a short, brief segment of Conyers Ave, a practically abandoned public right of way in lots gradually being reclaimed by nature.

But it may not stay that way for long, after City Council last week approved without discussion or comment a request to close Conyers as a public right of way, part of what appears to be a planned recombination of the parcels by adjacent landowner Richard Morgan.

If Morgan's name is familiar, it's likely because of the retail beachead that Morgan and his wife Jacqueline have established just down the street, first at Brightleaf Square itself before the Morgans pioneered the redevelopment of Peabody Place, anchored by Morgan Imports -- now celebrating four decades of life in the Bull City.

The Morgans control six properties along both sides of Conyers; five were purchased before 2006, the last just last August, at a healthy $84,000 for just an eighth of an acre of land.

With the closing of Conyers, the public ROW -- which dead ends after just a few dozen feet before a metal barrier and fence denotes the right of way for the Durham Freeway -- the Morgans add that land, too.

There's no word yet what's planned for the parcels, though it definitely seems something development-oriented; according to the staff memo from City/County Planning:

This request is to permanently close 80 linear feet of Conyers Avenue, located south of Wilkerson Avenue and north of N.C. 147. The right-of-way closing is being proposed to allow for the recombination of adjacent properties for future development.  The proposed street closing demonstrates the equal distribution of the area to be closed to the one adjacent property owner which is Richard Morgan. All of the adjoining lots to this right-of-way have access on an existing improved street.

More on what's planned when we learn of it.

Comments

[Dudek]

If these homes are taken down, I hope the Morgans allow an architectural salvage place to disassemble the homes first. No need for them to go completely to waste. I think these homes are so cut off that there is no reasonable expectation that anyone would move into them, but maybe either the whole home or part of the houses could be saved.

I've walked down this street before after visiting the Duke Bus Depot's lost & found, and I think these homes had an interesting sense of mystery and serenity.

[Richard Morgan]

I plan to salvage every piece of material that is usable from both properties. In my past projects I have extensivily used recycled material and plan to do the same in the futrue.

[Ken Duke]

What are the "railroad tracks of doom?"

Ken

[Kevin Davis]

@Ken: It's a reference to the railroad bridge at Gregson St. south of Main St., which has a habit of decapitating trucks. See http://11foot8.com for more.

Coincidentally, a post later today at BCR will tackle my own encounter (and ethical dilemma) over said bridge later today.