Missed Hits: Townhomes & Public Housing

A riff on my Quick Hits series, these are some of the Durham developments that I previously missed, but want to highlight.

Gordon St Townhomes

Neighborhood:
Downtown/Morehead Hill/West End

Size:
62 Townhomes (each 3-4 stories, between 1,300 and 2,500 sq ft)

Land Purchase Price:
$3.3 million

Estimated Construction Cost:
Unknown

Expected Completion Date:
Early 2019

Developer:
4 Line LLC & Greymont Development

I saw this announcement last December, and somehow it just never made it on to the site - apologies! I was reminded of it recently because construction has started. Most of the land has already been cleared out! It's worth driving by to see the space.

These townhomes will be priced between $400,000 and $700,000 apiece. I am a fan of higher density across all target demographics, so while these will definitely serve a higher-income buyer, it is still good to see more units on the market.

The other aspect of this project that is nice, is that the developer is Raleigh-based, so relatively local. There is also a plan for a small amount of commercial/retail space.

Oldham Towers/Liberty Street Apartments

Neighborhood:
Downtown/Cleveland Holloway

Details:
14-15 acres - the Durham Housing Authority wants to redevelop these properties to be mixed income and potentially mixed-use (I assume that would refer to retail).

Estimated Construction Cost:
Unknown

Expected Completion Date:
TBD, Development targeted to begin late 2019

Developer:
Durham Housing Authority

Thanks so much to reader Steven J. Kinsella for calling this to my attention. Currently Oldham Towers, a senior citizen building, and the Liberty St apartments have a combined 214 units of public housing. The plan is to convert the development on this land to between 20-30 percent public housing and add market-rate housing as well.

As long as Durham continues to be dedicated to public housing throughout the city, I see this move is positive. The city will likely lose public housing units with this project, but mixed-income buildings have benefits. The concept of creating separate, low-income housing and "fencing off" lower income folks is antiquated. I hope for a Durham that has diversity of race, income, ideas, and identities integrated throughout the city's neighborhoods.

Of course, that all assumes that the total level of public housing goes up and makes up for this isolated decrease.