After almost 10 years away from Duke basketball, Christian Laettner and Brian Davis are back in Durham attracting scores of people once again-but this time, they're promoting the apartments they converted from old downtown tobacco warehouses.
About 150 of the 243 loft-style apartments have been leased, including one to Executive Vice President Tallman Trask. Faculty members and graduate and professional students-and a handful of undergraduates-have also moved in, said Tom Niemann, managing partner of Blue Devil Ventures, the development company behind the project.
The apartment complex is the residential portion of the $40 million effort to transform five former Liggett Group, Inc., warehouses into West Village, an eight-acre expanse of apartments, offices and retail space.
"It's wonderful," said senior Pam Keeney, a West Village resident. "It just has so much character.... It's nice to live in a place where no one's lived before."
The idea of building apartments downtown first occurred to the former basketball stars in the early '90s, Davis recalled, when Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs Sue Wasiolek "kicked us off campus for having a waterbed" and pets in their room. Afterwards, they were acquainted firsthand with the demand for upscale apartments in Durham.
"We just realized when we were apartment hunting... that Duke is growing and [the Research Triangle Park] is growing," Laettner said. "We said, 'Let's try to be smart, let's try to take advantage of something that's available to us. People need a place to live.'"
At the same time, Davis said, they wanted to give back to Durham. "It was a combination of wanting to do something for the community... and just growing up in cities," he said. "The vision is just to create a village."
Davis said he hoped West Village's location in the center of downtown-three blocks from East Campus and one from Brightleaf Square-would spark further economic development there.
Ted Abernathy, Durham's manager of the office of economic and employment development, said the West Village project was "by far" the largest single source of residents downtown, and agreed about the ripple effect of residential development downtown.
"It creates a 24-hour downtown," said Abernathy. "It creates people who are vested there.... They support shops and retail downtown. I'd love to have a Blue Devil Ventures about every year."
The apartments, which are divided among four buildings surrounded by two courtyards, are designed for a range of people, but particularly for professionals such as those working in the RTP area.
"We look at it as young, professional, urban living," said Davis.
Within the one- to four-bedroom apartments, which range from $670 to $1,680 per month, the walls do not extend fully to the ceiling-a feature not all the residents appreciate. Keeney said she and her roommates had selected a penthouse-style apartment with higher walls in order to avoid such an arrangement.
"You sort of want your own room," she said.
Davis justified the design: "We tried to create this wall style where you could keep some privacy but keep the openness."
Junior Rajitha LaMont also praised the apartments in general, but did say noise could be a problem. "The walls are pretty thin," she said. "I think some people have had problems with [hearing] their neighbors."
Most residents said they liked West Village's location.
"We can walk to Brightleaf and go to [Satisfaction Restaurant and Bar]," Keeney said. "It's also super-close to East Campus."
Many residents were also excited about the prospect of having restaurants, cafés and more within West Village.
The 31,500 square feet of retail and office space, which is still under construction, already has some future tenants, Niemann said, ranging from a Triangle Amateur Athletics Union basketball team that Blue Devil Ventures sponsors to a money management firm. Plans to attract restaurants, cafés and a market are also underway.
However, some residents expressed frustration at the fact that no such establishments are now in place, since construction on the retail space is still in progress.
"I'm very doubtful that [bringing in a coffee shop] will get done while I'm still here," Keeney said, although she added that one might arrive by spring.
The construction of the retail and office space should be completed by late October, said Niemann, and construction on a fifth building should finish by the end of the year.
Blue Devil Ventures has plans to expand both within Durham and in other cities. The company recently bought a building in downtown St. Louis for a similar project there and is also discussing a possible purchase of additional land in Durham from the Liggett Group.
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