Wondering what the interest in downtown condos and residential units are? A look at the open house and party for the Mangum 506 condo project (map) on Friday night suggests it continues to be fairly deep, and fairly intensive.

I stopped by to check in and take a look at the plans for a few minutes, only to find the Center Studio Architecture office literally packed wall-to-wall with Durhamites checking out the newest downtown residential project. Over the course of an hour or so, I'd estimate that about 75 people made it through to look at the site plan, 3D models, unit floor plans and cabinetry samples.

Which is a good sign of demand for downtown residential units, particularly with competition from the completing-construction Trinity Lofts near the DAP, the Durham Kress, and soon American Tobacco. Downtown Durham's renaissance depends on drawing a critical mass of residents to support retail and dining options in the urban core, and to create activity beyond the 8am-to-5pm of the workday.

Although projects like Mangum 506 are coming online in the midst of a national downturn in the residential real estate world, the continued growth in the Triangle and the Bull City bodes well -- The Durham News notes the Wall Street Journal's notes Durham prices are up 7.2% over the 4Q 2005 national peak price -- for finding buyers for these condo units, especially in light of the increased interest in urban lifestyles.

We've talked at length here a few times about City/County Planning and the challenges and frustrations residents and businesses alike have faced with the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO).

One of the latest parts of the Bull City to run up against the precepts of the UDO and of Planning is the area around University Estates and Turnage Heights, off Moreene Rd. in western Durham. Jim Wise over at the N&O wrote a good story earlier this month (link unavailable) covering the basics of the case, which involves D&L Parts, a Durham-based purveyor of appliances and parts.

At the time, the City's perspective on the project seemed to be that the project was A-OK to move forward based on the current "Neighborhood Commercial" (CN) zoning in place for the site.

According to Janet Mittman, a resident active in trying to block the project, though, the project as conceived never fit the pattern of CN zoning in the first place. CN zoning, according to the UDO, is intended "to provide for commercial centers in close proximity to residential areas and to offer limited commercial uses to satisfy the needs of the surrounding neighborhood." All well and good, of course; who wouldn't want a neighborhood market, restaurant, house of worship, B&B or the like in the area?

Even with West Main St. closed over in the West Village area (map) for a month's time (as noted in this week's The Durham News), the old industrial bridge across the road continues to connect two of the buildings in the old warehouse/factory complex, though today with only its steel infrastructure, sans the former metal siding and Liggett & Myers slogan on its side.

This bridge has been a source of much discussion on the local blogosphere. First we thought it was coming down; then, it wasn't. Heck, our dearly departed friend Blazer Manpurse even sponsored a little contest for the best new look for the structure.

Last we heard, the hope was that the W. Main St. bridge could be transformed into an art installation of some sort for the project. But a source says that hopes are dimming for that end, and that the most likely end for the industrial structure could be plain metal siding -- or the scrap heap.

Who's to blame? Believe it or not, the answer appears to be the National Park Service, which has had a significant say over the aesthetics of the project given that tax credits administered by the government agency are helping to fund the renovation of) the project.

As of this writing, the NPS has apparently given the project team two choices. Namely, the bridge can be restored to the form it originally held, or it needs to be removed entirely. Apparently, the latter option is rather more likely than the former at this point.

Which is, really and truly, a shame. The bridge across West Main Street has the potential to, if transformed into a more artistic form, be a real statement on the horizon akin to that made by the Lucky Strike water tower and smokestack at American Tobacco. Both of which, admittedly, are historic restorations true to their original form. But while the Ambacco skyline is well-served with its restored original, the vista between downtown and Brightleaf Square would seem to be far better served with a more interesting appearance worthy of the one-time factory's own transformation.

Barry reported at his place on Saturday that the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People's endorsement of Bill Bell for re-election as mayor, and Farad Ali as their only endorsed candidate for Council. (See the H-S for their coverage, too.)

The Committee's endorsement was the most-watched in some ways this year, given both the uneven performance of the Committee in recent years and the ongoing fights between conservatives and the Committee core as to who's going to get the PAC's endorsement.

And with that, we have the endorsements of the PACs (and now the local papers) wrapped up. For mayor:

• Bill Bell: People's Alliance, Durham Committee, Herald-Sun, Independent Weekly
• Thomas Stith: Friends of Durham

For City Council:

• Farad Ali: Durham Committee, Herald-Sun
• Eugene Brown: People's Alliance, Friends of Durham, Herald-Sun, Independent Weekly
• Diane Catotti: People's Alliance, Friends of Durham, Herald-Sun, Independent Weekly
• David Harris: People's Alliance, Independent Weekly
• Laney Funderburk: Friends of Durham

In the Council race, the twin endorsements for Brown and Catotti all but reassure their re-election. It is with the third slots that things get interesting. The Committee had the weakest impact on the primary election, yet Ali drew strong support from a wide range of Durham districts and came in a solid third in the October contest. Will Harris benefit from the support of the county's Democratic Party in a way that will let him move up from fifth to third? On the flip side, could a strong showing by Stith draw in conservative voters to support Funderburk, or longer-shot Steve Monks?

Over the next two weeks, we'll continue to spend some time focusing on the election as things unfold in advance of the November 6 general election. Two more weeks until we find out who's sitting on the dais and who's sitting out for the next two years.

(Note: this post has been updated with the local newspaper endorsements.)

The Latino Community Credit Union (LCCU), a Durham-based credit union that's the "first bilingual, multicultural financial institution in North Carolina," is screening its film "Angélica's Dreams" (Los Sueños de Angélica) tomorrow at 4 p.m. at the Carolina Theatre.

LCCU, a community-development credit union that's received substantial support in getting started from Self-Help Credit Union and Duke University, focuses on providing full-range financial services to the underserved Hispanic community and other low-income populations. The vast majority of their customers have no credit history when the start out with LCCU -- meaning they're otherwise easy pray for pay-day lenders and other predatory sources of funding.

The film is produced as part of LCCU's homebuyer education series, intended to help first-time buyers and the community at large understand the process of buying a house, which is one of the most important tools for individuals to empower themselves financially. Set in Durham, it shows aspects of the local Hispanic community through a lens not often seen in the local mass media, or political campaigns for that matter.

Duke and the City of Durham are co-sponsoring the screening of "Angélica's Dreams," with Duke offering affiliates ticket distribution and, for students, transportation to the premiere.

In other news, LCCU (which is receiving $5 million in deposits from Duke in the coming years to help fund mortgage origination for low-income folks) is one of four finalists for Wachovia's NEXT award, an $8.25 million prize fund to help community development corporations and financial institutions in serving their unique mission.

Kudos to LCCU, the City and Duke for helping to put together this screening. It's another sign of what makes Durham different from other communities -- a commitment to helping and empowering the poor, not finding ways to just crowd them out of neighborhoods and the city.

No Derm-focused posts today; I'm off to Greensboro at ConvergeSouth, a regional blogging convention taking place at NC A&T today and Saturday.

Don't miss the H-S' big piece on Greenfire Development, which touches on all aspects but one of Greenfire's downtown property acquisitions. (Namely, the ability these acquisitions give Greenfire to be a major negotiator with the public sector and to influence the nature of future downtown revitalization.)

Also in the news: Durham Co. Sheriff Worth Hill endorses Bill Bell for mayor. Does this give any impact to Stith's I-can-fight-crime-better campaign? More on this tomorrow.

And given the subject of today's conference in GSO, be sure to take a look at Hal Crowther's "Stop the Presses" piece in this week's Independent. Crowther takes a nostalgic and hard line on the demise of local newspapers and how new media are ill-prepared to meet the challenges. Short answer: I think Crowther is right in the near term, but fails to account for how the ad revenue streams that newspapers collect today could, even at reduced levels, continue to fund traditional journalism mixed with community-sourced reporting. But as with Sheriff Hill, that's something for more discussion later.

Monica Chen over at the H-S has an excellent and comprehensive story today on Scientific Properties' closing their purchase of the Heritage Square shopping center for $4 million -- the cheapest part of Scientific's total planned $155 million investment.

The numbers are truly staggering in scope for the area -- 325,000 sq. ft. of retail, 235,000 sq. ft of commercial office space, and 220,000 sq. ft. for residential on just ten acres. By comparison:

• Diamond View II, the prominent commercial office building rising behind the DBAP and next to the Performing Arts Center, is significantly smaller (150,000 sq. ft.).
• University Marketplace, the mixed-use redevelopment of the old Kroger plaza by South Square, will have 115,000 sq. ft. of retail space (one-third the Heritage Square amount) on 14 acres, along with 300 residential units.

What's the value of all this space? Let's ballpark some numbers here, starting on the low-end for rental rates and assume $16 per sq. ft. for commercial (far less than the asking rates at Ambacco) and $10 per sq. per year for residential (assuming all apartments, which isn't the case, but the sale prices on condos would probably equate to the same day one present value. Retail is trickier, but let's be conservative and assume about $20 per sq. ft. based on asking rates for other mixed use developments in the Triangle.

Factor in a 10% vacancy rate and you're looking at about $13 million in gross revenue a year. Not too shabby on ten acres of soon-to-be-former shopping center space (especially one selling for just $4 mil today.)

The hundred-and-fifty million dollar question in all this, of course, will be whether Scientific can lease up the spaces, particularly the retail and, to a lesser extent, the commercial property. Although the new courthouse location next to the Jail seems likely to lead to an exodus of law firms from eastern downtown, they'd seem more likely to gravitate towards the property that Scientific owns at the Venable, American Tobacco, and any future development at the Johnson dealership site that Scientific Properties now controls. Similarly, how quickly will Scientific be able to fill up retail sites at Heritage Square -- and will these be new additions to downtown, or will they poach from the Hesters' property across the street and from Northgate?

It is upon this question that large sums of money rest. And it is likely also a factor in Scientific reaching out for a development partner to help fill and lease out the retail sites, similar to the West Village folks have done with Vanguard's involvement in their latest phase (though the latter is using Vanguard just as an agent, not a true development partner.)

Expect completion by late 2009 on the current timetable.

OK, so at the risk of delving into cynicism, one must take note of the number of new initiatives and announcements coming out of the City in the next couple of days with at least a half-raised eyebrow.

First up, per the N&O: a press conference called for Friday morning to announce the installation of cameras in sections of North-East Central Durham to help watch out for crime. And here I thought all those CCTVs over in our mother country just made for PBS and BBC America specials about privacy. It's an initiative announced earlier this year through City Council, but it's coming forward this Friday at a special press conference.

(Incidentally, Wired magazine recently ran an intriguing article (PDF link) about a similar technology that gets around some of the privacy issues by using sensitive microphones that respond to the sound of gunshots; a network of microphones is used to triangulate the location of the shots based on relative volume and time-lapse between sound arrival and can dispatch police within seconds.)

Next up: On Saturday morning, Bell is scheduled to attend the Campaign for Decent Housing annual town meeting at Eastway Elementary, after the PAC1 meeting. According to an organizer's email, on Saturday Bell "will announce the new Neighborhood Revitalization Volunteer Home Repair Program" at the session. From the sounds of the program's name and from descriptions of similar programs in other cities, the best guess is it will be a City/congregation/non-profit partnership to provide low-income homeowners in inner-city neighborhoods, including elderly and disabled persons, with repairs to their houses to improve their quality of life and to help revitalize neighborhoods.

The H-S today refers to Bell's plan to launch initiatives for the Gattis St. and NECD areas; it's not clear whether the cameras program or the Volunteer Home Repair Program fall into these categories or whether there are more programs to come.

In one of the less-surprising political endorsements of the silly season, the Friends of Durham have announced their endorsement of Thomas Stith's campaign for mayor. The Friends are a center-right PAC that's had some surprises this endorsement season -- in endorsing Diane Catotti and Eugene Brown's tries for re-election, notably -- but the selection of Stith comes as no surprise here. (See the N&O blog for details; I imagine the H-S will have a story on this on Thursday, too.)

Keeping with their moderate conservative bent (these are the old-line Chamber of Commerce Republicans, not the John Locke Foundation/Fox News types), they're also backing all the bond issues, including the school, Durham Tech, Museum of Life and Science, and road/sidewalk issues.

In the N&O interview, the Friends' president is quoted as stating that Bill Bell has "done a fine job," but that it's time for a change.

If there is an interesting factor to the endorsement, it's in the timing, which leaves the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People as the last of the Big Three endorsement groups to act. (Well, OK, the People's Alliance might not have announced a choice yet, but c'mon, it's Bill Bell. Scratch that, a commentor and the H-S have reminded us that Bell already has the PA nod.) The Committee's power seems weaker than in past based on the low inner-city turn-out in the primary and Victoria Peterson's poor showing, but still, it gives the Committee's leadership that opportunity for potential swing vote power.

Forwarded news from a reader: the 305 South Anti-Mall on Dillard St. is set to close by the end of the month, with an auction scheduled for Oct. 27 to close out most of the remaining inventory at the business.

As owners James and Michelle Lee noted in their email announcing the closure, "We are having such a hard time making it with out the music venue that we are just getting too tired to continue on this path. We have been in business 9 years in Durham now starting with the little house so we are sad. Come hang out with us at the auction and some friends have donated special things and art for our cause."

The music/performance space at 305 South has been closed since mid-May after the City of Durham determined the establishment needed a minimum number of bathroom stalls. The facility has operated as a 'furniture store and art gallery' since the venue shut down for live shows earlier this year.

The Lees report that the fate of the Electric Blender store is less certain; it will be open at least through Sunday Oct. 28, and they'll continue selling items online after the store closes.

The Lees have had a long run in Durham in a number of spaces, including the Ooh La Latte cafe (now Broad Street Cafe). It's always tough seeing a small business close up shop, and it's doubly unfortunate to see an outlet for live music -- particularly acts that are not commercially viable for larger venues -- shut down. For all the arts focus in Durham, outside of Ringside and BCHQ, there's a decided lack of live performance venues around, and the number just shrunk by one.