Renovations began this week

Here Kimberly and David stand in front of the "art wall" where Kimberly has painted the announcement that "Renovation begins APR20". (and she appears to be holding up a pineapple....not sure what that means). The sign at the top was made so that when the wall comes down there is still some advertisement.

The water line has been moved and inspected. Concrete has been broken to allow footers (front store posts and stair) to be poured. The gas line marked to accommodate moving the meter from the front of the store to the side of the building. The dangerous stairs to the rooftop were removed. And, termite junk was poured around the foundation.

Changes are happening fast.

Marketing Weekend

Contracts are signed. Renovation begins on Monday. More on that tomorrow......

The first floor of 308westmain is officially for lease. We kicked off this event by once again taking advantage of Durham Art Walk.

This weekend brought the streets of Durham more life with Art Walk '09. Remember that the fall Art Walk was the event where local youth were invited to paint the storefront construction facade. It was very cool. But repeating that would have seen unoriginal.

So this weekend I incorporated the help of a real artist. Kimberly painted an invitation to vote what the space should become. Then folks started stopping by. And stopping by. And stopping by. I met Europeans here as grad students, local residents excited by the changes, parents, kids, lawyers, council members, renovation specialists, and architects. So many interesting people. Really. And all of them were passionate about how a downtown should be reborn. Here's what we heard about my space:

1. an overwhelming response for a cafe/coffee shoppe.
2. a community grocery/corner market. The number of responses for this surprised me. So did the number of people that knew about Central Market opening but still requesting a market on a smaller scale. Interesting.
3. Retail space......especially of the boutique variety
4. a bar or club
5. gallery space, often coupled with cafe or coffee
6. small bookstore, magazine shop and cafe/coffee (seeing a trend....coffee goes with every request)
7. yoga/day spa
8. bicycle shop and coffee bar. This one interested me because the couple that discussed it had historical bikes and had a friend that was a repair "artist"
   
9. and one each response for boxing ring, Dollar Store, English Smoking Club, an occult shop and a combination martini bar/shoe shop

This really was one of my favorite weekends in Durham. The people made it special. May the space lease to someone who shares the dream of community.

And now to bed to get some rest for a great week.

Contract Review

Edits are underway to the construction contract. David is available to begin work. The National Parks Service contacted me for payment approval of Phase II of their review.

I'm getting real close to seeing progress!!!

I'm in Love

This post is not directly related to 308westmain but certainly has a connection......

Today I felt even more a part of the community. Scott and the folks at center studio architecture invited me to be their guest at the Downtown Durham Inc. Annual Meeting. The meeting was hosted at the new Durham Performing Arts Center, making this the third day in a row that I visited (dinner with Wayne before B. B. King on Sunday - Ashley, Chris and I went to the grand opening on Monday - then this afternoon).

I'm back from that brief commercial break.

Anyhow, the meeting was very informative and renewed my interest in Downtown Durham. I learned:

• residents of downtown have grown from 180 in 1996 to 1470 in 2008. Nearly a tenfold increase in 12 years
• # downtown employees has grown from 5,851 in '96 to 13,500 today
• office occupancy rates remain in the high 80 percentile (88% this year)
• resulting from downtown's renaissance, properties increased in value an average of 135%, compared to the county average of 30% (results of 2007 reevaluation)
• folks are committed to keeping the downtown SAFE, DIVERSE and full of the arts
  

Downtown Durham: Find Your Cool (new slogan)

Most importantly, my connection to the community was deepened because of the people I met and hung out with. Thanks to:

• David Downie for his continued friendship and dedication to construction
• The folks at DDI for their vision of Downtown Durham
• Joni Madison, the outgoing DDI chair and COO of McKinney, for a moving salutation
• Congratulations to Kelli and Billy of Toast for winning this year's "Outstanding Retail Entrepreneur" award
  
• Cheers to my new friends and neighbors; Lindsay, Rachel and Nicole
  
• And finally, a BIG THANKS to Scott, David, Will, Tom, Chris and Dawn for inviting me and putting up with the noises that come from above their studio

Contractor Selected

I selected David Downie of Apperception Design-Build as my contractor. It was not an easy decision.

We interviewed 4 businesses, viewed their ideas/proposals and discussed the project. Each group was represented by good people. Each had unique skills and areas to bring to the project. In the end, I selected David because of his 1) dedication to turning old into new, 2) taking one job at a time, 3) hands on approach to the build and 4) "spiritual" presence when talking with him.

Check out David's webpage to see some of his past residential work. I'm excited to see he has experience creating loft condos out of historic buildings. Wikipedia has a definition of Apperception.

Contractors Interviewed

Hey mom, I enjoyed our conversation last night and am glad your able to read the blog.

Interviews with the 4 contractors ended yesterday. I met some good folks and feel as if each will bring something unique to the project. Each contractor is scheduled Friday to present their ideas & plans. Soon after we select a contractor, organize permits/dumpsters, and begin demolition. I'm looking forward to Friday. A contractor's experience will bring a needed perspective to our planning and design.

Juggling time off for the building project, plus immersing myself in a new project at work is an art I hope I'm performing with success on both sides.......