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Durham City Center Tower


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I find Lexington KY to be sort of like Durham. They had a flashy proposal that involved wiping out their best downtown block. Then it never happened. Then it restarted and stopped after the foundation was completed. 7 years later they have a giant hole in the ground and 14 fewer buildings in the historic core. Durham does not want to be Lexington in the case http://www.kentucky.com/2013/03/09/2550241/a-time-line-of-the-centrepointe.html and http://www.kentucky.com/2015/04/28/3824309_lexington-council-sends-webb-companies.html?rh=1

Edited by Jones_
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  • 4 weeks later...

here we go...

http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/blog/real-estate/2015/08/one-city-center-tower-durham-nc-construction.html

 

Paul Smith, managing partner of development firm Austin Lawrence Partners' Durham office, in an interview on Friday promised that a news release would be issued "soon" announcing the formal start to the construction project, starting with the construction dig for the two floors of underground parking for the building.

 

To date, Austin Lawrence Partners has not formally secured major construction financing from a bank or other financial institution that would typically accompany a project the size of One City Center, according to a search of Durham County's Register of Deeds.

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  • 1 month later...

The green fence cover is gone so the site is easily seen from the street now.  Not sure this means anything,  but it's different at least.

 

The developer's other project,  the jack tar hotel renovation appears to be full steam ahead.  It sounds like they're doing all kinds of work in the building as one walks by.  I know this isn't nearly the scale of the proposed tower, but it has to be good news to see them making good on something after waiting this long.

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  • 2 months later...

there's a website now and a few new renderings http://one-citycenter.com/

not much else other than mention that about half of the office space has been taken.  it also looks like they're "actively" looking for people to live there now. 

 

on the developer's site we get a few more details as well
 

NAME:

City Center*

STATUS:

Break ground Q4 2015; Deliver Q4 2017

LOCATION:

Durham, NC

SUMMARY:
  • 27-story mixed use high-rise tower
  • 27-month construction timeline
  • 23 condos
  • 117 luxury apartments
  • 129,000 SF of Class A office space
  • 22,000 SF of retail space

DCC-pool-floor-v03_24x42_SM1.jpgDCC-amenity-floor-v02__32x181.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

Wow! The transformation of downtown over the last ten years has been truly remarkable.   Durham really is a city moving forward and in short time stands to be one of the shining lights in the south.   

Can we all please remind our politicians just how valuable having a highly educated class really is?  

Edited by BullDurhamer
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I'm not disagreeing with either statement, but could you fill in your logic between the two? Whole books get written on the subject, and you skipped straight from growing city to educated people. Just curious what your thoughts are. Afterall, Durham had and has a large urban, but poor and largely uneducated population. Raleigh also has a large educated class that chose to live just outside of downtown for 100 years (and Durham too). Do you mean just a change in planning attitude since say WWII? This entails changing mindsets on transportation, sustainability of infrastructure finance models, race and racism so on and so forth. Durham is doing some great things...just want to hear a local's perspective. 

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I'm simply talking about all of the high tech industry that's driving all of this expansion that wouldn't be happening without having three top notch universities nearby.  We hear talk about cutting various corporate tax rates and things like that, but trade offs for these decisions can mean to decreased funding for higher education.  There's a reason why the triangle is a haven for all of this industry.  We have a workforce that's capable of filling these jobs.  

Long term investment in ourselves is vital to long term success.   I know there's plenty of push out there statewide now to change priorities and in the long run it would be terrible for Durham and Raleigh if small town North Carolina legislators with so much clout were able to successfully get their philosophies put into reality.  Remember last year when they were trying to take away a great deal of sales tax revenue from the cities?  It's a battle out there and keeping the universities funded adequately is going to be a large part of that.  

 

Edited by BullDurhamer
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Yes and no. If you look at the RTP-driven expansion 1965-1985 by IBM, Nortel, Burroughs Wellcome, etc, there were not that many local hires of professional people at the outset. Their white collar workforce was mainly relocations -- IBM from NY, Nortel from Canada, etc. (It's no surprise there is a hockey team in Raleigh.) The original concept of RTP from the late 1950s was indeed heavy interaction between industry and the three research universities. Some of that took place, but the attractiveness of RTP was just as much cheap land, favorable taxes, and relatively low salaries for the people that they did hire locally (manufacturing and clerical in the beginning). Over time the relocations wound down and the companies began hiring local white collar. At that point, availability of new grads from the universities (plentiful supply, still relatively low salaries, and no relo costs!) became an additional plus for the Triangle. 

How strong a factor today is research interaction between local industry and the universities? Depends. In life sciences, a lot. In IT or telecom, not much. In some respects the benefit flow is in the reverse direction... local industry has provided a steady stream of applicants to the MBA schools at Carolina and Duke.

Edited by ctl
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12 hours ago, BullDurhamer said:

Wow! The transformation of downtown over the last ten years has been truly remarkable.   Durham really is a city moving forward and in short time stands to be one of the shining lights in the south.   

Can we all please remind our politicians just how valuable having a highly educated class really is?  

The Republicans will lie to your face about how much they love the schools now they surely do and then laugh behind your back.

Republicans do not want too many people to be educated. Look at teacher salaries. Look at the hiring of Midge Spellings. Look at the cuts to UNC.

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18 hours ago, BullDurhamer said:

I'm simply talking about all of the high tech industry that's driving all of this expansion that wouldn't be happening without having three top notch universities nearby.  We hear talk about cutting various corporate tax rates and things like that, but trade offs for these decisions can mean to decreased funding for higher education.  There's a reason why the triangle is a haven for all of this industry.  We have a workforce that's capable of filling these jobs.  

Long term investment in ourselves is vital to long term success.   I know there's plenty of push out there statewide now to change priorities and in the long run it would be terrible for Durham and Raleigh if small town North Carolina legislatures with so much clout were able to successfully get their philosophies put into reality.  Remember last year when they were trying to take away a great deal of sales tax revenue from the cities?  It's a battle out there and keeping the universities funded adequately is going to be a large part of that.  

 

Oh yeah, right on. There are definitely certain folks...tech, creative, etc,...that like to live downtown and their companies are important catalysts on many fronts. Also, I work in the State government complex and the targeting of cities in every way possible, makes me want to just walk out sometimes. But, alas, I have a mortgage on a downtown property to pay....so in that way, I like to think I am helping by diverting those State dollars back into downtown Raleigh...little sliver that it may be...

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This tower looks amazing. I really like the flat iron style base of the building at street level. We were in Durham last year for the first time in 10 years and I was blown away by how vibrant the downtown has become. There are enough older buildings that it's growing an Asheville style vibe to it and the tobacco campus really is a completely unique area. 

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  • 2 months later...
35 minutes ago, NikOnder said:

Just found this. States construction was set to begin Feb 15. Anyone in Durham able to confirm if any activity has begun on this?

http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/blog/real-estate/2016/02/one-city-center-tower-durham-nc-duke-university.html

Yep they're actively excavating right now.  Flurry of activity in the big hole in the ground for foundation work.

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  • 2 weeks later...

This is a beautiful building and will go a long way to visually solidifying Durham's dispersed skyline. I always thought downtown Durham's street grid was interesting and this tower sorta highlights that - lots of potential. Watch out Greensboro, Durham will soon be taller and already has more density!

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  • 1 month later...

Hi all,

Saw this thread and thought I'd post a quick update since I walk by the site every day. Photos are from NW corner (including a bit of the Jack Tar), NW corner looking down Parrish, from SW corner, then from SE corner looking up Main.

it's going up really fast - workers seem to be there close to 12 hours a day, and there's even work going on now.

Does anyone know how many street-level stories there will be? Looked like five from the renderings, perhaps.

image.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpg

Edited by NativeSpecies
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