Downtown Durham has 5 restaurants that have remained open 20 years. Can you name them?
Zero square feet.
That’s how much office space was built in downtown Durham in 2023.
The fact landed with a thud at Downtown Durham Inc.’s annual unveiling of its “State of Downtown Durham” report.
This year’s report gives a portrait of a downtown recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic and wrestling with the growing phenomenon of remote work.
But even as office visits slow, the residential population has swelled, and five restaurants have managed to hang on the past 20 years straight.
Here’s what else we learned at the event, which packed Bull City Ciderworks with Durham’s movers and shakers Wednesday afternoon.
Four big projects still on the table
Nicole Thompson, the chief executive officer of DDI, said it was the first time in at least a decade that no new commercial office space was added downtown.
She called it “troubling, but not devastating.”
Projects that could add 829,000 square feet of office space downtown remain in consideration, but none has a committed timeline on when it will break ground:
While office occupancy stood at 87% last year, Thompson said they’re bracing for that to fluctuate.
“The sublease market is very strong in downtown and when these leases terminate, there’s a great possibility that this occupancy number could drop,” she said.
The best days for downtown business
DDI reports there were 2.5 million office trips in 2023.
That’s down from 3.6 million in 2019.
But it’s an improvement from 1.9 million in 2022.
“This kind of drop in activity is what we are still reeling from and trying to recover in cities big and small,” said keynote speaker Scott Page, who founded a design studio doing consulting for DDI.
Tuesday through Thursday are the best weekdays for downtown merchants.
“It’s very slow on a Monday. It’s very slow Friday. Picks up a little bit around 4 o’clock and into the evening,” Thompson said.
All told, downtown Durham recorded an estimated 10 million visits in 2023, up 9% from 2022.
Downtown’s longest serving restaurants
There are five restaurants that have operated without pause in downtown Durham for the past 20 years.
Devine’s (1978), a sports bar for the Duke Blue Devil faithful.
Ninth Street Bakery (1981, but moved downtown in 1992), a wholesale bakery with a cafe out front.
JC’s Kitchen (1997), a Black-owned Fayetteville Street staple for soul food.
James Joyce (1998), an Irish pub with a popular outdoor patio.
The Federal (2004), whose front porch “has long been a top perch to grab drinks and watch Durham pass by.”
King’s Sandwich Shop, which most audience members thought would take the prize, does have several decades on those spots.
The burger stand, which opened during World War II, has “since 1942” painted on the building. However, it closed for a few years as ownership changed hands, reopening in 2010.
“Continually. Operating,” Thompson emphasized gleefully over a few groans.
Residential performing strong
Durham has 5,418 residential units in and around downtown, up 19% in 2023.
Another 670 are in the pipeline.
That adds up to around 11,000 residents downtown, projected to grow to over 19,000.
“Why is this important? Because we know that people that live in and adjacent to downtown tend to visit downtown,” Thompson said.
Average monthly rent is nearing $2,000 and the units are 82% occupied, DDI reports.
“When we think about what it means to be a downtown neighborhood, it’s more than building housing,” Page said. “It’s about building the right types of housing at the right price points in the right locations, and that there’s outdoor space and amenities.”
