Five Points Redevelopment

I'm actually pleasantly surprised...the previous sketches they posted were much smaller in scale...I hope this actually gets built. It would add a lot to our skyline!

It’s a bit of a mixed result for me. I’m happy that they are going with height and density for the site with an additional building likely planned. That said, the original concept would have contributed more to the downtown landscape with office space and retail/grocery. Presumably they will likely still incorporate a significant amount of retail space at the ground level. Understand that the future of office space is murky at best right now but hopefully we see a more evenly weighted distribution of residential and office projects in the future.

Imo, looks better than a lot of recently built towers around NC. It's interesting to me that Durham had been able to get a decent amount of condos built in downtown recently whereas most of the other big cities are just apartments.

Looking at another forum, demo has started on the old South Bank building.

Yes - I didn't mention it, but I drove by it yesterday. Some of the lower-level walls were missing. I assume there is going to be a full-on explosives demolition at some point. I am curious about the steps needed for such a large demolition project.

Interestingly enough, the once famed Washington Duke Hotel downtown was also imploded...

Sorry these are so large, I didn't really know how to make them smaller - such a noob

In today's N&O

"Construction is poised to begin in June on a glassy 27-story skyscraper that will transform the Durham skyline and bring a wealth of residential units to one of downtown’s most bustling commercial corridors. The Novus will sit on the wedge of land between Main Street and Morris Street, surrounded by dozens of restaurants and bars and backing up against the Downtown Loop.

It will be the second 27-story building downtown, which is about the limit of the stories that modern builders can fit under the downtown core’s 300-foot height limit. Builders must seek out a variance if they wish to go taller."

That will be really fun to watch go up!

If not for the 300 foot height limit, it seems that one or more of these projects may have gone taller.

Yes, in a few years Durham will have four different 27-story towers. That's telling us something.

The UDO does allow up to 450 feet with provisions or 495 in the case where historic preservation comes into play.
Bonuses are given for providing affordable housing, public parking, a green roof, adding depth to the facade of the podium, and stormwater capture/reuse. To my knowledge, no developer has ever pursued these bonuses. Makes me wonder if the bonuses are too low or if they could be restructured in a way that actually creates incentives for developers to do more than the bare minimum. In particular, it seems like 15% affordable units should provide a higher bonus than 60 feet, which works out to - what - 5 extra floors?