The South Bank building has towered over Durham for 44 years, but its days are numbered

To implode or not to implode?

Whichever way it comes down, the days of the South Bank building towering over Five Points in downtown Durham are numbered.

“We are not exactly sure what we are going to do. Implode it probably,” said Jane Hills, who owns Aspen, Colorado-based Austin Laurence Partners, the developer of One City Center and the owner of the South Bank building.

“That would be a very exciting spectacle ... But we are not sure what the city wants (or allows) or what the community can bear” in how we go about demolishing it.

The exact date of the demolition is uncertain — though it is certainly many months or even more than a year away.

“Our goal is to break ground in spring of 2020,” Hills said in a phone interview.

Tenants currently in the building, she said, have long been aware of the company’s plans and are on month-to-month leases.

“We’re continuing to keep everyone cozy and comfortable until further notice and we will give them plenty of time,” Hills said of the tenants. “We still have to draw plans and present it to the city.”

She added that before it is demolished, Austin Lawrence will likely offer the building to the local fire department or police department as a place it can conduct drills for a few weeks.

But what will the company build there? That is still up in the air, Hills added. Previous sketches have shown another high rise, featuring offices and apartments, but Austin Lawrence is still in the design phase, she said.

“What we are doing right now is we are closing out One City Center and really focusing on the completion of that building,” she said. “Obviously that is the main focus right now. We are working with a design team, which we can’t disclose. And we haven’t awarded the general contract.”

Austin Lawrence Partners, which has become one of the most influential developers in the Bull City, bought the building for $6 million in 2013.

Since then, the company has finished constructing the 27-story One City Center, transforming the downtown skyline in the process, as well as renovating the old Jack Tar Motor Lodge into the boutique Unscripted Hotel.

The South Bank building dates back to 1974, when it was built by First Federal Savings bank, according to the archiving website Open Durham. First Federal eventually turned into South Bank, which eventually sold the building to Greenfire Development in 2007 for $3.3 million, according to county records.

Since then, downtown has seen billions of dollars flow into it and thousands of apartments added, as the number of workers and residents in the city’s core increased. And with that growth, there have been discussions about changing some of the infrastructure around downtown, including the one-way loop that circles it. In 2017, the city of Durham applied for federal funds to convert the one-way street into a two-way one, The Herald-Sun has previously reported.

When asked whether the potential conversion of the loop, which borders part of the South Bank property, would have any effect on the company’s plans, Hills replied it would not.

“We don’t really care (if it’s converted),” she said. “It is frankly not something that has an influence on it one way or another. ... We are not worried.

“Could we change things around? Yes, definitely, we are pretty creative.”