Quick Updates: Little Five Points
It appears that the city and Haskell properties (aka James 'Fireball' White) have reached a memorandum of understanding that has staved off demolition of the buildings at Little Five Points. UDI and Haskell are, according to principals at both organizations, discussing a joint renovation plan of the buildings at the corner. Jim Wise has some more information in his column in yesterday's Durham News. (One error in Jim's article - the city planned to raze the property as a nuisance first and then UDI would have somehow gotten their hands on the vacant lot.) The city, despite the positive outlook, grumblingly notes that they will 'wait and see' before committing to renovation of their building next door.
This has the potential to be a win for the neighborhood; most importantly, it is what should have happened in the first place. Unfortunately, it takes derailing business-as-usual in order to get some creative thinking to occur.
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2 comments:
I've been eyeballing empty properties in the more questionable areas of downtown Durham for a little while now. The presence of BCHQ now has made LFP a bit more approachable (yay for poineers!) do you know if any of these spaces are still available for lease and upfitting? I know the city offers a partial loan for renovating properties within certain areas of Durham, know anything about these? or where LFP falls into the equation?
Vera
I agree with you, BCHQ makes a big difference here. I think one owner owns all of the southernmost storefronts (including BCHQ) and seems like a nice guy - I'd certainly approach him about the vacancy situation.
If you were looking to buy, the city owns a building over there, up the row to the north ~ 2 storefronts from BCHQ. I would hope someone would convince them to sell it to them for a positive purpose, as they are quite unenlightened about it.
Good luck!
GK
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