Downtown Durham at an Inflection Point

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Good morning, readers. 

Several locally-owned businesses in downtown Durham have closed their doors in recent weeks, including Beyu Caffe, 321 Coffee, and, last week, COPA. Fullsteam announced it’s leaving its Rigsbee Street taproom after 13 years. 

For months, business owners have been vocal on social media and in city council chambers about the issues they face—rising food costs, security concerns, the cost of parking for employees and diners, and disruption from ongoing construction. In May, Nicole Thompson, the president and CEO of downtown revitalization advocacy group Downtown Durham, Inc. made an impassioned plea to council members to “renew their commitment” to downtown or “the downtown we all love and are so proud of will cease to exist.”

It’s clear that downtown Durham is at an inflection point, and its problems are complex, touching on the built environment and original design of downtown, cultural changes resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, and a perceived need to enhance downtown’s amenities to draw in more foot traffic. 

City leaders say they have plans. Mayor Leo Williams is advocating for adding a large new convention center and hotel that could draw in as many as 4,000 tourists at a time. And the city plans to improve the streetscape and make downtown more walkable, in part by converting couplets (parallel running, one-way streets such as Mangum and Roxboro) to two-way, and potentially redesigning the Durham Freeway.

Thompson, in her May presentation, recommended the city establish policies around construction to allow nearby businesses to continue to operate unimpeded, provide more support for outdoor dining, and re-establish building and retail improvement grants that the city used a decade ago to encourage development. 

But with rents continuing to rise, and more and more residents moving to a downtown that’s still largely unwalkable, those look increasingly like table stakes, and city leadership will need to act quickly to save more businesses from going under. 

“Downtown’s success was founded on public/private partnerships, strategic investment, and supportive policies created by visionary public leaders,” Thompson told the council. “A vibrant, successful downtown that is the primary economic engine of a thriving city does not happen accidentally or on autopilot.”

Have a good Wednesday. 

—Jane

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