Lakewood Shopping Center has been a commercial hub in Durham for decades. Now, a developer has plans to revitalize the shopping district and residents in the surrounding neighborhoods want to have a say in its future.
On Tuesday evening, residents weighed in on the potential redevelopment of the shopping center during a virtual meeting hosted by Morningstar Law Group, the law firm representing BrodyCo, the developer of the proposed project.
BrodyCo is a Greenville, North Carolina-based development firm with nine projects in the state, including Lakewood Shopping Center, according to the firm’s website. The company mostly works on developing commercial centers.
The site proposed for redevelopment is roughly 8.35 acres and includes about half of the shopping center located adjacent to the Food Lion. Scrap Exchange, the reuse arts center that purchased a 10-acre portion of the district in 2016, has been the other anchor tenant in the district since moving to Lakewood in 2014.
Nil Ghosh, a spokesperson for Morningstar, said BrodyCo plans to revitalize the district and refresh the retail storefronts on its portion of the property by updating the facades and changing the size of the units to make them more affordable for local small businesses. The firm also plans to redesign the parking lot by adding more plants and sidewalks to make the large lot safer and easier to navigate for pedestrians. Ghosh said that tenants have complained about drag racing in the large, often empty parking lot.
The plan also includes adding climate-controlled self-storage to a portion of the site, which Ghosh said will help underwrite improvements to the project overall. He added that the aesthetic of the storage space would resemble that of apartment units to help them blend into the property.
“This allows BrodyCo to recapitalize the property while maintaining the center as a primarily retail location,” Ghosh said. “Additionally, self storage is a low traffic, low intensity, low utility use. So the center will not be overburdened by this. But this will create another kind of anchor that will give the shopping center more stability in the long run.”
Many residents voiced concerns during the Q&A portion of the meeting about the lack of housing in the plan and said that self-storage added little value to the community. Several comments came in through the chat function on the Zoom call, which had about 200 participants.
“You are basically saying that the storage is the ‘cash cow’ to support the rest of the property. What types of studies have you done that support that thinking?” said Barbara Szombatfalvy, a resident.
“What is your metric for this being ‘beneficial?’ Where are thriving communities demanding self storage? Move this to [US] 15-501, not a residential neighborhood,” said Emilie Smith.
Lakewood has struggled to maintain its once vibrant attractions. The shopping center was previously home to a movie theater and small amusement park early in its history. Over the years, it has lost its appeal as shopping malls and brick-and-mortar retail has declined. Food Lion has remained an anchor tenant for decades, and other service-oriented businesses like El Centro Hispano and Lincoln Community Health Center have found success in the district.
No matter what BrodyCo chooses to develop, it will have a significant impact on the rest of the shopping center, which is mostly owned by the Scrap Exchange. Ghosh said the two groups have been in communication about future plans but no formal collaboration is expected.
In an op-ed for the INDY in 2017, Ann Woodard, the former executive director at the Scrap Exchange, put forth a grand vision for the declining shopping center. The plan included a reimagination of the entire site with Scrap Exchange as the driving force.
“Our long-term vision for the Reuse Arts District is a one-of–a-kind destination with makerspace and shops, art studios, galleries and artist marketplaces, gardens, a sculpture park, architectural salvage operations, affordable housing, a shipping container mall, and more,” Woodard wrote. “The near-term plan is to lease space in order to generate income to cover the financing costs. As part of that process, The Scrap Exchange will operate an 18,000-square-foot retail thrift store that can serve as an anchor tenant for the shopping center.”
It is unclear how the two sites will manage the redevelopment of the longstanding commercial tentpole of the Lakewood neighborhood. Renderings of the site were shared during the meeting, but no official development plan has been submitted to the City of Durham planning department yet, Ghosh said. BrodyCo will have to request a rezoning for the property to specifically include self-storage, which is not allowed under the city’s current zoning map. The development proposal will go before the Durham Planning Commission before the Durham city council considers it during a public hearing.
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