Preservation Durham has dropped its opposition to removing the Liberty Warehouse’s Local Historic Landmark designation after reaching agreements with the building’s owner and prospective buyer.

The City Council is due to vote on removal at its meeting tonight.

According to Preservation Durham Executive Director Wendy Hillis, Liberty owner Greenfire Developer and East-West Partners, a Chapel Hill firm which has a contract to buy the warehouse, have agreed to address several preservationists’ concerns:

• Integrating the existing southern brick wall into the redevelopment plans by preserving the Foundry, Central Park mural and wall, but making strategic penetrations to allow for enhanced public connectivity and programming in Central Park.
• Incorporating of the northeast brick façade and LIBERTY sign into the redevelopment plans.
• Reusing old wood from the warehouse within the redevelopment and recycling that which is not reused onsite.
• Memorializing and documenting the Liberty Warehouse and the tobacco-auction business in Durham, either through an outdoor public exhibit or a dedicated museum space.
• Using architectural forms and materials that contextually relate to the surrounding area.
• A continued dialogue with Preservation Durham around the development of Liberty Warehouse that will include regular communication and meetings as the project proceeds towards construction.    
• Should East-West Partners not become involved in the Liberty’s redevelopment, Greenfire Development is committed to these same criteria.

Hillis and Preservation Durham President Josh Park negotiated the commitments with Greenfire Managing Partner Paul Smith and East-West principals Roger Perry and Bryson Powell.

“We have always recognized that Liberty Warehouse would be a difficult building to rehabilitate,” Hillis said in a prepared statement.

“Our concern has been that any redevelopment project intelligently assess the historic importance of the site and ensure that any new construction is appropriate within the industrial context of the neighborhood.”

The renovation of downtown Durham's Chesterfield building, which was originally expected to begin back in April, has been delayed again.

Josh Parker, the developer behind the project, said in an email today that the closing of the $63 million in stimulus bonds being used to finance much of project won't occur until Sept. 30.

Chesterfield Partners, Parker's company, can't take ownership of the building until the closing occurs and the bonds are sold to investors as long-term notes with a fixed interest rate.

Parker said the delay wasn't caused by the company's inability to get the terms it wanted for the bonds.

"There were some things going on outside of our control that caused a last minute delay despite most everything being ready for a closing on June 30," he said. "The September 30 date is the next best date we could get with efficiency to get all the pieces ready on the same day and steer clear of how summer affects Wall Street. 

Chesterfield Partners rolled bonds in to a new escrow period with an interest rate of .40 percent, Parker said. 

"This is a low interest rate that doesn't materially change the overall budget and a cost we can absorb," he said.

The fixed interest rate on the bonds will dictate how profitable the deal ends up being for Chesterfield Partners.

Chesterfield Partners, which is attempting to renovate the Chesterfield building in downtown Durham using federal stimulus bonds, has been given approval to issue the bonds from the state.

The Local Government Commission approved the developer's request at its meeting last week. Chesterfield Partners had earlier gotten approval from Durham County officials.

Developer Josh Parker said the underwriters are now making final preparations to sell $65 million in bonds, which must be issued before the end of the year.

Stone & Youngberg, a New York investment firm, has been hired to market the bonds.
 

Chesterfield Partners LLC won the county commissioners' unanimous approval tonight for a $65 million recovery-zone bond sale to support renovation of the former Liggett & Myers cigarette factory.

Proceeds from the bond sale would be loaned to Chesterfield Partners, which would bear sole responsibility for repayment. Issuing bonds through the Durham County Industrial Facilities and Pollution Control Financing Authority allows a private business to borrow at a low interest rate.

"The county bears no financial liability or potential financial liability," said former N.C. Chief Justice Burley Mitchell, speaking on behalf of Chesterfield Partners

"The Chesterfield project is ... truly shovel-ready, which is what the recovery-zone bonds were intended for," Mitchell said.

The proposed renovation would convert the 360,000 square-foot factory for mixed uses including stores, a restaurant, office space, storage space, 152 loft-style apartments and various tenant amenities, said Chesterfield Managing Partner Josh Parker.

Standing at the corner of Main and Duke streets, adjacent to the former Liggett & Myers complex already redeveloped as West Village, the 1949 "Chesterfield Building" (so called because the factory was decades topped with a billboard for Chesterfield cigarettes, above) would be "an important linchpin ... connecting the Brightleaf [Square] area with the heart of downtown," said Commissioner Ellen Reckhow, who moved for approval.

There was no discussion before the vote. Besides Mitchell, Downtown Durham Inc. CEO Bill Kalkhof and John White, public-policy director at the Durham Chamber of Commerce, spoke in favor of the bond issue.

Total project budget is $89 million, Parker said, and it would create about 200 temporary jobs during construction and, directly and indirectly, create the equivalent of about 250 full-time jobs after completion.

Chesterfield still needs approval by the state Local Government Commission before the sale can begin. With approval, Parker said, the sale could be closed in December and demolition and hazard-abatement begin in January.

Developer Josh Parker's efforts to redevelop the massive Chesterfield building in downtown Durham passed one hurdle earlier this week.

On Monday, the state Department of Commerce gave Parker's development group, Chesterfield Partners, approval for $65 million in borrowing capacity.

Chesterfield Partners is hoping to sell $65 million in federal stimulus bonds to transform the Chesterfield building into a mix of retail, offices and apartments.

Parker also needs approval from Durham County's Industrial Facilities and Pollution Control Financing Authority. A hearing has been set for Nov. 8 to discuss the proposal.