On a frigid winter night two years ago in downtown Durham, a band of loyal customers huddled over drinks at Fullsteam Brewery. Outside the brewery’s tall bay doors, which were ajar, a large generator spewed diesel fumes.
Sean Lilly Wilson, Fullsteam’s founder and self-titled “chief executive optimist,” was having his title tested. He described this scene to the INDY, adding that he took to the company’s Instagram page to share the challenges Fullsteam was facing amid the construction of a high-end 51-unit apartment complex next door to the brewery’s Rigsbee Avenue location.
“With grit and grace, we’ve endured years of construction-related challenges,” Wilson wrote. “Alas, it’s winter. Now’s the time to stand with the independent, locally-owned small businesses that paved the way for the growth you witness today.”
Since July 2022, the side door to the brewery’s much-adored alleyway patio space had been locked due to the adjoining construction project from Elmwood Group. Although Fullsteam does not own its building, the business still has a right to use the alleyway for fire egress purposes. To meet the fire code, Fullsteam’s sliding red door at the entrance to the bar was required to stay open even in the cold. Not only had Fullsteam lost its prized outdoor seating, it was also losing potential indoor customers during a season that’s already historically slow for bars.
Two years later, that construction is ongoing. The INDY reached out to Elmwood Group but they were not available for comment.
“We were definitely told that it would be a shorter project,” Wilson tells the INDY.
Durham has been perpetually under construction for over a decade as the city has seen a population boom. As a result, many downtown businesses are required to be flexible and accommodating as projects get underway, with the promise of more customers to come.
But businesses like Fullsteam, which have set the tempo for downtown life over the years, are being left behind, Wilson says. He worries that some businesses on the block won’t survive the construction long enough to reap the purported benefits waiting for them on the other side.
Navigating the construction issues
Elmwood Group, a development firm previously based in Atlanta but now headquartered in Durham, owns three properties in the area under their “Rigsbee Collection” including the 710 Rigsbee complex next to Fullsteam. The project, titled “Phase 2” on the Elmwood Group website, is a six-story, mixed-use development covering a half acre. Construction broke ground in the summer of 2022 and was estimated to finish at the end of 2023, but the project is still ongoing.
Delays like this are not uncommon. An unexpected storm or delayed shipment of materials can set back a site for days or even weeks. But those delays also hurt neighboring businesses, says Ari Sanders, director of taproom operations at Fullsteam, and without clear communication from the developers, business owners are left in the dark, creating challenges for their staff and customers.
“We were looking forward to a great year,” Sanders says, “then we got an email: ‘Hey, we’re gonna block the street off in front of you for about 30 days.’ Then it turned into 60 days, and what wasn’t quite clear was there was going to be a massive generator directly in front of our front door, blowing diesel fumes, putting out so much noise that it was pretty much OSHA non-compliant in front of our building for months.”
Evading construction equipment in downtown Durham can feel like a game of Ninja Warrior. Ducking under scaffolding, leaping over potholes, plugging your ears to block the chiseling sound of jackhammers—they all present serious obstacles to customers trying to access their favorite watering hole. Even if patrons arrive at the bar unscathed, there’s no guarantee the business will be operating at full capacity due to construction disruptions.
“We’re a manufacturing business, not just a taproom,” Wilson says. “And we would have instances and still have instances, where electricity is just magically shut off for hours at a time with little notice or awareness. We definitely had brew sessions interrupted through water being turned off with no notice. That’s a very expensive interruption where we’re at risk of losing large batches of beer.”
The combination of COVID and construction hit the taproom’s bottom line hard. Fullsteam still supported its employees with pay increases, as workers across Durham navigate an increased cost of living. Wilson says that faithful customers stayed committed to supporting Fullsteam through the tough times, but unlike during the pandemic when businesses received Paycheck Protection Program funds from the federal government, there is no remuneration from the city or developers for construction-related losses.
“I have nothing but appreciation for those who’ve come out to support us and help us get through a challenging time on the heels of COVID, which was its own challenge,” Wilson says. “Here, we don’t have government support. You know, we’re kind of on our own.”
What is the city’s role in managing these relationships?
The rules on the books in Durham suggest that developers bear little responsibility in communicating with future neighbors. Local businesses, instead, must rely on developers to be forthcoming about potential disruptions.
“Individual developers do not have any additional responsibilities to their neighbors beyond respecting trespass law,” says Alexander Cahill, senior development services manager with the Durham planning department. “The only notification requirements are associated with blasting, and that’s permitted by the fire departments. It is fairly common for developers to voluntarily communicate with nearby neighbors about issues such as street closings, but that is not required. Such closures are permitted by either the city or NC [Department of Transportation] as applicable.”
Jeremy Roth, managing partner at Motorco Music Hall, a music venue across the street from Fullsteam, says the city should collect funds from the projects when they fail to meet expectations and use those funds to improve the process for development in Durham.
“You don’t have to build a condo in Durham,” Roth says. “You don’t have to. We’re letting you do that. We’re allowing that process to happen.”
Existing zoning for property in downtown Durham is less restrictive than other areas of the Durham zoning map. In many cases, no additional rezoning is required for new projects to start building, giving the city council limited strength in negotiations with prospective developers. But some projects do require easements and other adjustments, which provides an opening for the city council to bargain for proffers such as payments to the affordable housing fund. Small business owners like Roth see an opportunity for the city to leverage its powers to hold development projects accountable and support small businesses in the process.
“One of the aspects of allowing that process to happen is just we have city inspections, we have inspectors for the trades,” Roth says. “And they come in and they say that’s not done right. Do it again and you pay for that. You pay for that inspector to come out, you pay for the permit, and we all understand the cost of constructing something. What I’m saying is, there should also be just an overall level of coordination citywide that is funded by these fees.”
Early in Durham’s downtown revival, the “DIY” district was one of its go-to destinations. Businesses now considered Durham institutions—Cocoa Cinnamon, Surf Club, Geer Street Garden, the Pickleback, Fullsteam, and Motorco—were young upstarts that cultivated a vibrant, welcoming business district. Nearly a decade after the district established itself, numerous new businesses have joined the fray throughout downtown, increasing competition. Roth says it’s hard to attract customers to an area that’s constantly under construction.
“You know, I’m just doing my books, trying to keep costs down, and market to customers around this ordeal,” Roth says. “[The construction] just makes the neighborhood very, very unappealing. You can imagine, you know, you’re downtown, and you’re thinking about going down to what Sean Wilson calls the DIY district. And you start walking down Rigsbee and you see all the orange cones and fences and trucks parked across the road and it’s like, ‘I don’t want to go down there.’ And we’re definitely feeling that, we’re seeing that.”
Wilson moved to Durham in 1992 and says that its unique architecture and charm were one of the things that first attracted him to the area.
“When we were first looking at why Durham made so much sense for us starting a brewery, like a lot of people, we loved its bones and the spirit of Durham,” Wilson says. “I do worry that it’s turning into Anytown, USA.”
Downtown Durham has seen its share of the pervasive “five-over-one” apartment complexes cropping up in recent years as local leaders look to urbanize the city center further. As of July 2023, over 2,000 units are under construction with 2,000 more units announced, according to the 2023 State of Downtown Durham report.
“Apartments don’t go out for beers, people living in them do. They’re going to be empty when they’re $2,100 for a two-bedroom.”
“Apartments don’t go out for beers, people living in them do. They’re going to be empty when they’re $2,100 for a two-bedroom,” Sanders speculates. “So unless the supply of apartments helps the market correct the pricing, they’re going to be empty units.”
New condos downtown have a broad range of occupancy. Liberty Warehouse, an apartment complex that sits between Rigsbee and Foster Street, a block from Fullsteam, was the first to land in the district, in 2017. A spokesperson for Greystar, the global real estate company that owns the apartments, says that it is at 95 percent occupancy. Beckon Apartments, also owned by Greystar and located on Liggett Street, is at 61 percent capacity, with unit prices ranging from $1,200 to $4,400.
With the rising cost of living and no sign of the housing market settling, it’s unclear whether the purported benefits of new residents put forth by the city and the developers are on the horizon. Beyond the construction, Sanders worries that, once the dust settles, the apartments may draw new residents less comfortable with the district’s lively sensibility.
“Is a $2,100 one-bedroom person a person who’s gonna like Fullsteam?” Sanders says. “Are they a person who is gonna like Surf Club, or are they a person who’s gonna call the cops when Surf Club is loud? I’ve been here before Liberty [Warehouse] was here. People complained about the noise at the park, but you moved beside a park. I know about the complaints that Pickleback gets. Well, you moved across the street from a nightclub. So a little bit of me has concerns about [whether] our new neighbors are people who are invested in our neighborhood. I don’t think living next door to each other makes you neighbors. I think what makes you neighbors is a shared vision for the community you share.”
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