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Why Durham advisory board won’t back rezoning for Southpoint mall transformation

The Streets at Southpoint is being reenvisioned with apartments, a hotel, office space and parking garages. The mall opened in Durham in 2002.

The Streets at Southpoint is being reenvisioned with apartments, a hotel, office space and parking garages. The mall opened in Durham in 2002.

JIM BOUNDS

The new vision for The Streets at Southpoint came under scrutiny Tuesday night for the absence of workforce housing in the mall owner’s massive redesign.

“Right now, the AMC theater at Southpoint is hiring a part-time position starting at $12 an hour,” Planning Commission Chair Austin Amandolia said.

That low-wage employee, and others that retailers rely on to keep the mall vibrant, won’t be able to afford one of the 1,382 apartments planned for Southpoint, Amandolia said.

The mall owner has also proposed adding a hotel, parking garages and offices in a move that could more than double the shopping center’s square footage and allow building up to 10 stories high.

READ MORE: Malls across the Triangle are getting makeovers. Here’s what’s in store.

Patrick Byker, an attorney hired by the mall’s investors, said while they had no plans for affordable housing on the site, they would contribute financially to another project elsewhere.

“When I start to hear people talk about, ‘We’re going to put market rate housing here and we’re going to put affordable housing somewhere else,’ that sounds a lot like a road we’ve been down before in this country,” Amandolia said emphatically.

“Sounds a lot like segregation,” he said. “That’s wrong.”

It’s something Commissioner Stephen Valentine said they have long been worried is becoming a trend.

Byker said affordable housing wasn’t financially possible — with or without tax credits — given how much parking would be required.

“It just makes more sense when we have (affordable) projects that are shovel-ready today, to be able to get one of those over the finish line,” he said.

A team representing The Streets at Southpoint speaks in a huddle during a Planning Commission meeting in Durham City Hall on Tuesday, March 14, 2023.
A team representing The Streets at Southpoint speaks in a huddle during a Planning Commission meeting in Durham City Hall on Tuesday, March 14, 2023. City of Durham live feed

Expanding Southpoint mall

The Streets at Southpoint opened in 2002, spurring rapid development in southern Durham. It’s now owned by the international development firm Brookfield Properties.

After 21 years, the mall remains a mecca while other malls in the Triangle have closed or struggled to keep tenants. Brookfield says Southpoint is 97% leased and attracts 13 million visitors a year.

But it faces pressure from competing developments in Cary and Raleigh, Byker said.

“We need to move forward in order to maintain Southpoint’s competitive edge,” he told the Planning Commission.

Now, Brookfield wants to rezone the 132-acre property for up to:

  • 1,382 apartments;
  • A 200-room hotel;
  • 300,000 square feet of office space; and
  • 100,000 square feet of additional retail.

The 1.3 million-square-feet footprint existing today could swell to 3.3 million square feet.

Much of that growth would happen atop surface parking lots, Byker said, which won them points from the Planning Commission.

The Streets at Southpoint is Durham’s only remaining mall after Northgate closed in 2021 and South Square was torn down in 2003 and replaced with big-box stores.

“Our goal is to evolve this retail destination into a vibrant mixed-use community hub with additional retail, and new housing, hotel or office, offering a wide-range of transportation options designed for the future,” a spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “We very much look forward to next steps with City Council and participating in the necessary steps to ensure our commitment as a dedicated community partner.”

‘Such an uncertain market’

Commissioners voted 3-10 against recommending the rezoning to the City Council. Only Kimberly Cameron, Raymond Trapp and David Morgan voted yes.

Commissioner Nate Baker said there were a lot of reasons to be optimistic about the direction of the project, but they needed more details and a tangible workforce housing commitment.

“We’re talking about a transformative project for south Durham. This won’t be a new Durham downtown, but this could be a south Durham downtown, and we only get one shot. There’s only one shot, so it’s important to get it right,” Baker said.

The commission’s vote is advisory and does not prevent the project from moving forward. The City Council will have the final say later this year.

Before the vote, commissioners asked the developers to come back next month with a more detailed plan.

“Cards on the table for me, I would love to send this forward with a favorable recommendation,” Amandolia said.

Byker approached his team and the five men in suits whispered in a huddle several feet behind the podium for about a minute.

Byker said they couldn’t delay, as they are hoping to secure approval by summertime.

“It’s just such an uncertain market that waiting longer unfortunately could be very detrimental,” Byker said. “We respectfully ask for a vote tonight.”

Upgrades to the site

According to the rezoning request, Brookfield would rework the mall’s driveways and roads, build new bus shelters and crosswalks, and upgrade bus pull-out lanes on Fayetteville Road and Renaissance Parkway.

They’d also dedicate land on the northern edge of the property to allow the American Tobacco Trail to extend east to Fayetteville Road. Today, the route turns west after crossing Interstate 40 just north of the mall.

Apartment families’ children would attend Jordan High, Githens Middle and Lyons Farm Elementary schools.

Jordan is over capacity and Githens is nearing capacity, according to the planning department. Lyons Farm opened last year. It’s Durham’s first new elementary school in 10 years.

The Durham Report

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This story was originally published March 15, 2023, 3:14 PM.

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Mary Helen Moore covers Durham for The News & Observer. She grew up in Eastern North Carolina and attended UNC-Chapel Hill before spending several years working in newspapers in Florida. Outside of work, you might find her biking, reading or fawning over plants.

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