Luxury condos planned for Durham’s Central Park area. What the city wants in exchange.

New condominiums costing over a half million dollars may come to central Durham in a couple of years, once city leaders persuade the developers to give more on their end of a deal.

The Vega, a six-story building containing two underground parking levels, some shops and office space, would stand on Hunt Street next to the Durham Skate Park. A 10-minute walk from downtown, The Vega would connect to Durham Central Park, which hosts a weekly farmer’s market and free concerts in the summer.

New York City-based Lambert Development bought the property, the former home of Vega Metals, in 2019 for $3.3 million, The News & Observer reported.

“I believe, at the time it was sold, it was the most expensive land ever sold in Durham,” Mayor Steve Schewel said during a City Council meeting with the developer’s representative, Ben Kuhn, last week.

Lambert wants to use additional city-owned land to help construct the building. In exchange, Schewel and council members want the developer to provide more money for the city’s affordable housing fund.

For construction and fire safety purposes, Lambert needs several easements onto city property. The construction-related easements would be temporary. The fire safety easements would permanently dedicate eight feet of vacant space within the park to Lambert, on two sides of the building.

The building’s footprint, as currently planned, encompasses the entire property on the corner of Hunt Street and Rigsbee Avenue, so the extra eight feet would provide a separation area to help stop the spread of fire. Durham’s building code requires fire separation areas.

Lambert also owns The Brannan, another condominium project on Hunt Street, The N&O has reported.

Higher affordable housing donation?

The condominium buildings one- to three-bedroom homes would sell for $400,000 to over $1 million, according to The Vega’s website.

Under the proposed developer agreement, Lambert offered $57,000 for affordable housing, or $1,000 for each of the 57 condos.

“I’ll just say that the affordable housing contribution is significantly under what I think would be acceptable,” Schewel told Kuhn.

He suggested $5,000 per unit, or about $285,000 overall.

“I think that would be much, much, much more in line with what I think is fair in this situation,” he said.

Kuhn said he will discuss Schewel’s request with Lambert officials.

The median house value in Durham is $295,127, according to Zillow.

Skate Park and Central Park improvements

If the City Council grants Lambert’s request, the developer will include some upgrades to the skate park and Durham Central Park.

The skate park would get a concrete and brick seating area, similar to bleachers, with some extra trees for shade.

An American Disabilities Act-compliant sidewalk would border the skate park and connect Hunt Street to the looping pathway on the park’s grassy slope.

On the western side of the Vega building, another ADA-compliant sidewalk would bring Hunt Street to the park’s pathway, with additional shrubs or trees planted along the property’s edge.

“We’ve worked closely with representatives of the skateboard community, who are active, obviously, users of this skate park,” Kuhn said.

Lambert and city staff held two public meetings at the skate park, in 2019 and 2020, to ask for feedback and show how they modified the plan based on what they heard.

“We were able to tweak some of the design in ways that we think make it a better project for the park, but also for the developer as well, in terms of just, basically blending into the park to the extent we possibly can,” Kuhn said.

Managing expectations

City Council members want future residents of The Vega to know they are moving into an area with a lot of activity, not just from the skate park, but from food trucks and people walking by.

“There have been plenty of battles around this in Durham, and we want a vibrant community,” Council member Javiera Caballero said. “If folks want a quiet, idyllic suburb, there are other options than moving into the downtown area.”

For several years, Batalá Durham drummers practiced in Durham Central Park. But some residents of a nearby apartment complex called the police to complain about the drumming noise in 2017, The N&O reported.

The City Council later amended the city’s noise ordinance to allow unamplified musical performances at the park from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m, The N&O reported.

Still, city leaders remain concerned about new residents calling the police.

“I think advertising something as urban has not been sufficient to prevent folks paying these exorbitant prices for a downtown condo from calling the cops on kids when they’re making noise in the park,” Council member Pierce Freelon said.

In a post-George Floyd America, people are beginning to understand the relationship between calling the police for a noise violation and the systemic violence against youth of color, he said.

“I wonder if there’s an opportunity for some political education for your residents around you know, just what being a good neighbor is about,” he said.

Lambert is considering how to market the condos to manage residents’ expectations, Kuhn said.

‘The most expensive strip of land’

Council member DeDreana Freeman said the area has a lot of open space and the city is being asked to give up more of it for development.

“We could expand all of Central Park if we could manage to purchase the most expensive strip of land purchased in Durham,” she said. “And this conversation is about negotiating for eight feet, at $1,000 per affordable housing unit.”

“I will note that the numbers are really low, and it’s interesting,” Freeman added. “And I’ll leave it at that.”

Freelon asked what would happen if the city walked away from the offer.

Jeremy Anderson, vice president for the development’s civil engineering firm, said they would make the building smaller, so they wouldn’t need the extra eight feet for fire safety purposes.

But the improvements for the skate park and Durham Central Park are in exchange for the easements, he said.

The Durham Central Park board discussed whether the city could buy the land over a year ago, said Caballero, the board’s previous liaison.

“It was just, you know, way beyond our reach,” she said.

More developments coming

The Vega is not the only complex planned for Central Durham.

Beacon Street Development has submitted a plan for a seven-story condominium building with retail space on the ground floor.

If the city approves it, the project would bring 40 condos to 512 W. Geer St., next to King’s Sandwich Shop and across the street from Historic Durham Athletic Park. It would take over the site of a garden center, Stone Brothers & Byrd, which would move to a new site, the Triangle Business Journal reported.

An 18-story high-rise planned about a block away, attached to Motorco, concerned neighbors last summer, The N&O reported.

A four-story condominium on nearby Washington Street is selling two to three bedroom units, one unit per floor, for over $1.16 million.

This story was originally published June 1, 2021 at 10:55 AM.