Durham Innovation District

[DCMetroRaleigh 89]

A team of developers led by Longfellow Real Estate Partners from Boston, Duke University and Durham businessman Hank Scherich will unveil formal plans Wednesday for the "Durham Innovation District."

Backers are labeling the multi-building project as "Durham.ID"

The project is expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars and cover 1.7 million square feet of office space. The American Tobacco Historic District, which is nearby, includes some 1 million square feet of office space.

The partners describe the project as a "downtown research hub" with an emphasis on life science companies.

Read more at http://wraltechwire.com/massive-redevelopment-project-coming-to-downtown-durham/14025857/#tlkAVebTQkXbwYDf.99

 

[DanRNC 19]

This project is a lot bigger than I originally thought. Interestingly, I don't think this area includes the labs under construction in West Village. 

[Jones_ 203]

I've walked around in this area a bit and I'm still not sure exactly how they're gonna pull off getting any sort of campus feel to it or delineation of any sort....I'm not totally sure which buildings are included beyond the one mentioned in the article even...can anyone elaborate on what specific things are going to happen to what specific buildings?

[DanRNC 19]

Don't know too much but I don't think its supposed to be a campus in a traditional sense, but more of a neighbourhood. It will most likely consist of renovation as well as new construction probably centered around Measurement Inc.'s compound on Morris St. 

[DanRNC 19]

Here is a Duke Chronicle article as well. Pretty major movement for Duke that has been pretty conservative with moving hard sciences off campus.

 

http://www.dukechronicle.com/articles/2014/09/29/innovation-district-downtown-makes-room-duke-science-labs 

[Jones_ 203]

Oh! Sorry...all of a sudden it's clicking...this is the Duke version of Centennial, but unlike Centennial's 80's suburban model, Duke is taking things downtown. Important piece indeed for downtown. I'm no visionary, and fairly worthless to Duke (just some dude with a Civil engineering degree), but I may very well give in and pull up stakes and head to Durham (reference to the Durham Apartment Boom thread comment). I like it a lot up there...

[DanRNC 19]

Oh! Sorry...all of a sudden it's clicking...this is the Duke version of Centennial, but unlike Centennial's 80's suburban model, Duke is taking things downtown. Important piece indeed for downtown. I'm no visionary, and fairly worthless to Duke (just some dude with a Civil engineering degree), but I may very well give in and pull up stakes and head to Durham (reference to the Durham Apartment Boom thread comment). I like it a lot up there...

Well hopefully this won't be limited to Duke folks-would defeat the whole purpose. While Duke is a key player, the idea is to start pulling everyone in from various skills/backgrounds. A similar concept is South Lake Union in Seattle. My friend lives in the neighbourhood, anchored by Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center (UW), but you would never know it was a campus of any sort-just a cool little area with tech companies all over the place. 

[DanRNC 19]

So here is the synopsis of the development including the location. 

 

http://wraltechwire.com/asset/news/2014/10/01/14033881/Full_page_photo.pdf

 

and announcement.

 

http://www.wral.com/news/video/14033346/?ref_id=14033337

 

Sounds like the gauntlet has been thrown down to RTP's Park Center project-which was supposed to be announced in September. 

Edited October 1, 2014 by DanRNC

[DanRNC 19]

Another tech company taking space in this area.

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2014/10/22/silicon-valley-company-beefs-up-triangle-presence.html

[DanRNC 19]

Good article on Durham and it's startup culture. 

 

http://www.businessinsider.com/durham-startup-scene-2014-12?op=1

[BullDurhamer 79]

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/community/durham-news/article25155340.html

Innovation District

Longfellow Real Estate Partners of Boston and Measurement Inc. of Durham announced last fall that they planned to develop a 1.7-million square foot science/technology “Innovation District” on 15 acres between Duke Street and Durham Central Park.

Their $87-million first phase consists of 126,000 square feet of laboratory space and 145,000 square feet of offices, an 820-space parking deck and a public park along Morris Street near Measurement’s Imperial Building. According to Dick, Longfellow also intends to pitch in $8.3 million worth of improvements to public property such as streets and sidewalks near its project.

Construction is expected to start in 2016 and bring up to 780 temporary jobs, with 850 permanent jobs created in the finished product. Incentive payments of $350,000 would start in 2020, assuming a 2018 completion and opening, like the Chesterfield proposal taking up about 70 percent of the new tax income Dick’s office projects the city will realize from the development.

Deal points include Longfellow’s making at least half its parking deck available for public use on nights and weekends. Both agreements require the developers and their general contractors to “make good faith efforts” to do business with Durham companies during construction.

 

Edited September 29, 2015 by BullDurhamer

[mattncsu 3]

Two new seven-story office buildings and parking deck were announced last week:

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/blog/real-estate/2016/07/duke-research-institute-to-jumpstart-new.html

[BullDurhamer 79]

wow.  just wow.  

[DanRNC 19]

Talking about a complete transformation of an area-that was a dead zone.

[mattncsu 3]

Looks like they have officially broken ground on the two buildings:

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2017/03/16/durham-innovation-district-200-300-morris-building.html

[Nindec 6]

There are some great renderings on their website, http://durhamid.com.  A rendering of the whole district (with American Tobacco strangely labeled as "Downtown Durham"):

 

I was in the neighborhood today and the first two buildings are really coming together.  According to the leasing brochure, they will have about 20K sq ft of ground floor retail, plus space for a rooftop restaurant.  View from Morris St:

Looking down Hunt Street, with the Measurement building:

 

Looking up Hunt Street from the farmers market/central park:

In the above photo, the red building is a condo development, "The Brannon," that is just finishing up construction.  Compared to the Measurement building, its street level experience is pretty disappointing:  http://thebrannannc.com/

Final shot -- view from a bit farther up Hunt Street, showing the parking deck that is also under construction:

 I'm curious what the long term plan is for this back quarter of the block.   

[ctl 79]

The first of those renderings has the railroad tracks disappearing into vegetation on the middle right. Perhaps they believe the tracks will be covered over someday with landscaping above.
Hard to make out the Durham Belt, but I assume it's there (rails removed). 

[InitialD 305]

Here's a photo from atop the new City Center tower from August showing this construction:

Source: https://www.onecitycenter.com/blog/2017/8/31/construction-update-august-downtown-durham-nc

[KJHburg 10006]

Here is updated story from the Triangle Business Journal about the Durham Innovation District with photos.  https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2018/03/28/status-update-durham-innovation-district-takes.html?ana=e_ae_set1&s=article_du&ed=2018-03-28&u=oAaDx%2B74FoP4qOJ%2By4AU6dhJPpc&t=1522265872&j=80737271