Measurement Inc. to build new office building in downtown Durham

Measurement Durham, the real estate development arm of Measurement Incorporated, said today that it will begin construction next month on a 74,000-square-foot building in downtown Durham.

The $12 million project, to be located at the corner of Hunt and Morris streets, is the first of several buildings that will make up Morris Ridge, a larger development planned for the block bordered by Durham Central Park and Hunt, Morris and Corporation streets.
 
Measurement Incorporated, which develops and scores educational and professional exams for state and local agencies, will occupy half the new building. Urban Plant Mobile is also leasing space in the building.

The five-story building is expected to be completed by July 2012. Measurement Incorporated already owns about 300,000 square feet of office space in downtown.

The company moved its headquarters to downtown Durham in 1994 after buying and renovating the BC Remedy Building.

It later expanded into two other renovated buildings, the Brodie Duke Building and the Imperial Tobacco Building.

Capital Bank is financing the project.

Few new office buildings have been built in the Triangle over the last three years.

Lenders now require much of a building to be pre-leased before they will agree to finance new construction.

“We are very pleased to facilitate MI’s continued investment in Downtown Durham,” said Bryan Scherich, Measurement Durham's director of operations and development, in a release.