A downtown Durham building has sat empty for 8 years — now the city has a plan for it
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- The Durham City Council supports a plan for affordable housing at old police station.
- The apartments are part of a plan to also preserve the modernist Milton Small building.
- The city has a July timeline to select a developer for the apartments.
Eight years after Durham’s old police headquarters closed, its West Chapel Hill Street home moved closer this week to becoming the future site of affordable housing.
On Thursday, the Durham City Council backed a new plan to build at least 80 income-restricted apartments on the city-owned land and to preserve the former headquarters building, known as the historic Milton Small building.
A volunteer group, made up of members of the community-organizing group Durham CAN and local developers, told the council that affordable housing on the 4-acre site is “clearly feasible,” and presented two concepts that would keep the majority of the property open for future development.
Ketty Thelemaque, lead organizer of Durham CAN, said the city should select a developer who has used the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program before by July, with a goal of submitting a pre-application by January. The federal program provides tax incentives to developers for creating affordable rental housing.
80 apartments now, possibly more later
The volunteer, working group estimates that tax-credits would enable 100% of the apartment to be affordable.
- 25% of the units (20 apartments) would be reserved for households at or below 30% of Durham’s area median income ($24,300 for an individual and $34,750 for a family of four)
- 75% of the units (60 apartments) would be reserved for households at or below 60% of the AMI ($48,600 for one person, $55,000 for two)
The entire project is designed to be at or below the 60% AMI threshold to quality for the 9% LIHTC program, which allows developers to subsidize about 70% of the development costs for new construction.
Placing parking below the apartments would save about 2 acres for a future, second phase of 55 apartments or mixed-use project.
Stella Adams, a resident who spoke at the meeting, urged the council members not to treat the first phase 80-unit goal as a cap.
“Eighty affordable units is the minimum,” she said. “That’s a floor, not a ceiling.”
Jane Williams, a member of the Coalition for Affordable Housing and Transit, framed the presentation as a “deadline-driven” opportunity to get the housing that the city desperately needs soon.
“Time is of essence for building affordable housing at 505,” she said, stressing the July deadline proposed by the working group for picking a developer.
Preserving the Milton Small building
The group said the city must decide what to do with the Milton Small building, which will have its own parking needs. Preservation Durham has offered to buy and rehabilitate the building.
Cathleen Turner, regional director for Preservation NC, said parking needs will depend on whether the building becomes housing, mixed-used space or something else.
For now, the nonprofit has proposed three scenarios for the building that take up less than a quarter of the site:
- Housing: About 40 units with 40 parking spaces
- Mixed-use: Commercial space or a 100-room hotel, with 100 parking spaces
- Preserving the building entirely with parking
“Ideally, we’d like to see some sort of proactive, collaborative understanding or agreement with the city,” Turner said. “We don’t know what the proposed use is yet. ... Anything else is a crystal ball gazing at this point.”
What happens next?
Several council members said the project now has a realistic path forward.
Councilwoman Shanetta Burris said, “I don’t want to let perfect be the enemy of good.”
Councilwoman Chelsea Cook said she was “feeling really good.”
“I see a future in which we do something which just feels so much better,” she said, the room erupting in applause.
However, there are challenges, including a funding gap. The affordable housing project requires about $4 million to $6 million in gap subsidy from the city or other partners.
If the city follows the working group’s timeline, staff would select a tax-credit developer and return to council with a detailed plan in the fall.
However, even with an accelerated schedule, the process from selection to construction and lease-up could stretch into 2029.
“This is publicly owned land,” Adams said. “It is one of the few remaining places where the city can shape the market rather than be shaped by it.”