Trinity Park Residents Hear Off-East-Hotel Plan

Appeared in the Oct. 5, 2006, edition of The Chronicle, Duke University's independent daily newspaper.

A proposed hotel and condominium development off East Campus is primed to liven an area where an old clinic and parking lot now stand, but the developments are making some Trinity Park residents anxious.

The project--which could break ground on the 2.4-acre property as early as next spring--will feature a 100-suite hotel at the corner of Main Street and North Buchanan Boulevard and a 42-unit condominium complex at the corner of Main and Lamond streets.

To clear space for the hotel, developers chopped the 1890s-built home that stood at Main and Buchanan streets into four pieces and moved it down Watts Street. They plan to build around the historic, red-brick McPherson Hospital, which currently sits next to that property.

Developers will also tear down a recent addition to that space--a portion of the former North Carolina Specialty Hospital location--and replace it with a four-story extended-stay hotel. The abandoned parking lot across the street will be home to two buildings-a small house-like structure that will be designed to look like the surrounding Trinity Park homes and a seven-story, multi-tiered condominium building.

"It will be a wonderful entranceway project into the western side of our downtown from Duke's East Campus," said Bill Kalkhoff, president of Downtown Durham, Inc., an organization that facilitates downtown revitalization.

"You look at who's going to be staying there--Duke Med Center folks, University folks, visiting executives from the companies at American Tobacco--you're going to be bringing a whole new bunch of people who are going to be interacting with Ninth Street and Brightleaf Square," he said.

Despite the project's potential to breathe new life into the abandoned spot, some residents worry that the new development will tarnish the historic neighborhood.

"Whatever is developed there needs to reflect both the character of the neighborhood and also the historical aspect," said John Hodges-Copple, a Trinity Park resident who has been advising the neighborhood on land use issues.

Initial plans were for the hotel to be developed by Durham-based Park City Developers as a "boutique hotel." During the summer, however, Park City sold the site to a partnership that includes Concord Hospitality Enterprises of Raleigh, which operates several Marriott-owned brands including extended-stay Residence Inns.

Concord told Trinity Park residents in a Sept. 6 meeting that the hotel could be a chain, prompting concern that the architecture and building materials would be unbecoming of a historic neighborhood.

"If it's a hotel that looks like it could just be plopped down off an exit ramp in the suburbs, that's just not a good fit," said Alice Bumgarner, president of the Trinity Park Neighborhood Association.

Residents are also worried about the appearance of-as well as noise and light from-the hotel's parking garage, which will rise two stories above Buchanan Boulevard. "Would you want headlight after headlight [from the garage] coming into your windows late at night?" asked Ellen Dagenhart, a Trinity Park resident.

Fortunately for concerned residents, the site plan for the property has yet to be approved by the Durham City-County Planning Department.

Trinity Park residents wrote a letter to Concord last week expressing their anxieties, and they remain hopeful that Concord will revise the hotel's site plan to accommodate the neighborhood.

Bumgarner said the developers need to take Trinity Park's preferences into consideration to get the necessary site approvals from Durham.

"They know that the neighborhood wields a lot of influence," she explained.

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