Minerva condos get an OK

The economy may be on life support, but it showed one sign of vitality in Durham this morning.

The sign: inner-city condos, a concept hot two years ago but (aside from Scott Harmon's under-construction Mangum 506 project) since then gone with the rest of the housing bubble.

Ben Greene, a computer executive and real-estate developer on the side, who is also a member of the Durham Planning Commission, is reviving a condo-conversion project off Duke Street — on the spur of Minerva Avenue between the Duke Tower condos and the rehabbed warehouse where Legacy Studios and some other enterprises are located.

He proposes to renovate a 5,000-square foot, 60-year old warehouse into 10 units.

Greene got a go-ahead this morning from the Board of Adjustment, in the form of a minor special-use permit that allows him to exceed the density allowed in that area.

Residents of the nearby Bullington Warehouse condos appeared to oppose Greene's plan, with concerns about parking, vehicle access and trash receptacles. Greene allayed those concerns, though, by agreeing to secure space for parking and trash on the Duke Tower property.

Jennifer Collins, who owns the .19 site, and fellow Durham artist Chet Mancour were planning a five-unit conversion there in 2006. They had retained Maverick Partners as sales agent, but reconstruction never began and the market for downtown condominiums rapidly shrank nationwide as real-estate activity slowed.

The nearby Trinity Lofts condominiums, in the old Cal-Tone Paint building at Trinity Avenue and Washington Street, have sold only four of 17 units since renovation was finished in the fall of 2007.