Downtown Durham YMCA set for major transformation, as developer eyes 27-story tower
.jpg "A rendering of the office-and-apartment tower that will replace the downtown Durham YMCA.")
The downtown Durham YMCA is set for a radical transformation in the coming years, after agreeing to a deal with a developer to build a 27-story tower on its Morgan Street property.
The YMCA of the Triangle said this week it had selected Chapel Hill’s East West Partners to develop its property, where it will build a new space for the YMCA as well as offices and apartments.
“For 134 years, the Durham YMCA has worked to meet the changing needs of our community,” YMCA of the Triangle President Doug McMillan said in a statement. “This project is an exciting new chapter in the Y’s service and partnership not only in downtown but to all of Durham.”
McMillan said the Y’s current facilities in downtown Durham were “aging” and preventing the nonprofit from offering more services at that location. The new Y facility will include a two-court gymnasium, an indoor track and two pools, among other amenities, McMillan said.
East West, a prolific developer in the Triangle, was chosen after the Y quietly opened a request for proposals to developers in 2018. Other East West projects include the Liberty Warehouse Apartments and The Bartlett condos in Durham as well as Village Plaza in Chapel Hill.
The pandemic slowed down the process of selecting a developer. But East West said it hopes to begin construction on the new tower in the fall. The tower is expected to include nearly 300 apartments and 120,000 square feet of office space.
East West plans to build the tower in phases, with the Y being open before the apartment and offices are finished. The construction could lead to the downtown Y being closed for more than two years, and all staff and programs will be moved to other Y locations in Durham.
Ben Perry, senior managing partner of East West, said the current Y facility represents a different era of Durham’s history. “That facility was built in different downtown Durham,” he said. “They need something bigger there to serve the community and their constituents.”
Perry said he hopes to find a tenant before East West breaks ground on the tower this fall, but he noted the company would build without one.
He said he’s confident that there will be plenty of interest in the project, even as East West joins a host of other developers building office and apartment space in downtown Durham.
Currently, cranes can be seen in nearly every direction in downtown, with new condo buildings and apartments going up. At Five Points in downtown, the old South Bank building is being demolished to make way for a 20-story office-and-condo tower.
“For a long time, this region has been the benefactor of companies leaving high-cost markets,” Perry said in a phone interview. “And that’s just accelerated throughout 2021 and into this year.”
“I think you’ll start to see more high-rise buildings on smaller sites” like the YMCA property, Perry added. “The Durham skyline could really change over the next five to 10 years.”
As part of the project, East West is signing a 99-year ground lease with the Y. East West and the Y did not disclose the financial terms of the lease.
The Y did note, however, that its portion of the development would cost it $23 million. The Y said it expects to use proceeds from the ground lease and a new capital campaign called “The Heart of Durham” to pay for the development.
This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work. Learn more; go to bit.ly/newsinnovate
