Sam’s Quik Shop property in Durham sold for $5 million
After closing Sam’s Quik Shop, the owner of the former bottle shop in Durham has sold the property for $5 million, according to Durham County records.
Real estate development company Wilmorite Construction, which submitted plans last year to build student apartments on the property, bought the land, according to records. The project would have 80 apartments and retail space on the ground floor for a restaurant.
In a press release, Wilmorite said that the project is expected to be completed in August 2020.
Paul Wilmot, the president of Wilmorite Construction, told The News & Observer last year that his company had been interested in the property for nearly two years. The 1.2-acre property is near Duke University’s East Campus and a future stop on the proposed Durham-Orange Light Rail transit project.
The 7-story apartment project will be called The Blue Light, an homage to the original name of the business on the property.
Carl Boy opened a gas station on the property in 1946, according to the former owner’s website. In 1949, the Boy family opened up the Blue Light Restaurant on the property. The restaurant closed in 1974, when it was converted into a convenience store called Sam’s Quik Shop, the website says.
In recent years, John Boy, Carl’s grandson, also built a second, larger store in South Durham called Sam’s Bottle Shop. John Boy said last year when the Quik Shop closed that he had turned his focus to running the other store.
“I would like to thank the generations of customers and employees that have walked through the doors of The Blue Light and Sam’s Quik Shop,” Boy said in a Facebook post at the time. “Thank you for your support, loyalty and your neighbor-like spirit. This is not an easy decision to come to and I thought about so many things, my parents, me growing up in this store, the changing times from when it was a diner & drive-in to a convenience store with movie rentals and a large beer selection to the premier beer store in North Carolina it has become today.”
The new Blue Light will have 80 units made up of a mixture of two- and three-bedroom apartments. The company said it is hoping to interest upper classmen at Duke as well as graduate students.
In a statement, Wilmot called the project the first of several projects the company is considering across the Triangle.
This story was originally published February 21, 2019 at 10:37 AM.
