Durham’s Ninth Street, long home to local shops, adds another chain store: Starbucks
In what will be venti news for some, Durham’s Ninth Street corridor will add one of the world’s largest coffee brands to its strip of shops and restaurants.
Starbucks Coffee will open a new cafe at 706 Ninth Street in Durham, the first tenant to join a renovated 70 year-old building that once held a furniture company, a dance studio and most recently the former coffee shop Francesca’s Cafe.
The new Starbucks is the latest milepost in the Ninth Street shift from local independent businesses to national chains and brands.
A Starbucks spokesperson confirmed the opening by email, saying that the new shop is slated to open this summer with 25 employees.
The cafe will be the first company-owned location in downtown Durham, but not the first Starbucks. Licensed shops are open in Duke University Hospital and in some Harris Teeter grocery stores, including the Erwin Place supermarket across the road on Ninth Street from the new Starbucks.
The building is owned by Durham-based CFP Realty Associates IV, LLC. which renovated the spaces into four units, which are managed by leasing firm Real Estate Associates (REA). The new Starbucks will open in one of the street-level spaces. REA president Seth Jernigan said the other street-level space has interest from national and local restaurants. The company is looking for tenants for spaces upstairs and in the basement.
“We’ve been bringing the building back, converting and modernizing a much older building to today’s standards,” said Jernigan, adding that Starbucks will take over the space in March to begin its own construction.
As it has for the better part of a century, Durham’s Ninth Street remains one of the city’s most deeply rooted business districts. Like the rest of Durham, the row of restaurants and dry cleaners and diners has reckoned with the city’s increased development interest, with spaces seeing regular turnover and national brands joining the strip of mom and pops.
But the shift hasn’t necessarily been the predictable one, as more locals have opened in the last couple of years than chains. Taco shop Mi Cavillo and beer bar Flying Bull opened recently, joining Ninth Street mainstays like Banh’s Cuisine and Dain’s Place.
When a Waffle House opened on Ninth Street in late 2017, it closed two years later, before the COVID-19 pandemic. Other large and national chains have been around for a while, Jimmy Johns and Subway sandwich shops and Bruegger’s Bagels.
‘Also good to have some nationals in the mix’
Jernigan believes the mix of local and national can be sustainable for Ninth Street.
“One of the things that makes Durham special is its diversity,” Jernigan said. “We have a mix of tenants in Durham, local and national tenants, that make it an even richer place. We all love our local tenants, and it’s also good to have some nationals in the mix, giving the consumer different choices.”
Jernigan said he is a born and raised Durham native. He’s seen the shift on Ninth Street and from a landlord perspective believes national chains could mean stability on the strip.
“One challenge on Ninth Street, there are a number of buildings that have fallen into disrepair and need improvements,” Jernigan said. “For this building to be converted, it’s easier to do that when you have the strength and credibility of a national tenant.”
National chains are nothing new to Ninth Street, said Regulator Bookshop co-owner Eliot Berger, it’s just that the chains have largely stayed on one side of the street.
Berger and his partner, Wander Lorentz de Haas, each longtime employees of the Ninth Street bookstore, bought the shop in 2017 from Regulator owners Tom Campbell and John Valentine.
‘Inevitable and an abomination at the same time’
Also a Durham native, Berger grew up knowing Ninth Street through candy and comic books and as a teenager sneaking the occasional cigarette on a nearby hill. He said the tide of corporate interest on those Durham blocks has been a long time coming.
“It’s inevitable and an abomination at the same time,” Berger said. “Ninth Street has always been that mom and pop hustle and funky stores. It’s still funky, but as a Durham native, I’m a little wary of the corporate interest and condos.”
Like many businesses, the Regulator is closed for indoor shopping due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with all orders handled online or over the phone. When there is such a thing as foot traffic once again, Berger said Starbucks may help other businesses on the street, but he called the swap of an independent coffee shop for a Starbucks “ironic and tragic.”
“I’m sure it will be good for the businesses here with more foot traffic,” Berger said. “It’s a little too much, and it’s not a big deal at the same time.”
This story was originally published January 29, 2021 at 9:00 AM.
