bites of bull city
THE AUTHOR IS
On the Move
THE CREATOR AND
WRITER OF THE LOCAL DURHAM FOOD AND RESTAURANT NEWS
RE STAU R ANTS AR E FINDING NEW S PACES TO GROW
BLOG, BITES OF BULL CITY (BITESOFBULLCITY.COM).
B Y A M B E R WAT S ON
I
LOVE REPORTING ON THE DOWNTOWN RESTAURANT SCENE because of how much it is growing and evolving, but on the flip side, I recognize that rapid growth comes at a price. In recent years, investors and developers have taken note of Durham’s coolness factor and the dollar signs attached to it.
RELOCATING RESTAURANTS
In one sense, the ripple effect this growth has on local restaurants is good because there is a broader customer base; in another sense, it makes it hard to keep up. This is part of the reason Phoebe Lawless announced she would close the well-established downtown Scratch location and focus her energy solely on her new bakery and The Lakewood, explaining, “That sleepy [downtown] block now bustles. And, especially, downtown has transformed. All the once-empty storefronts are now offices and stores and restaurants and bars. It’s growing at a pace that we aren’t able to keep up with in that small storefront.” Dame’s Chicken and Waffles was one of the first restaurants to open in the Five Points area, and co-owner Randy Wadsworth recalls, “You wouldn’t see anyone walking around down there. The rent was dirt cheap and very accessible in terms of finding spaces. ” Dame’s outgrew its original home and recognized the need to move. “We wanted a location where customers could be more comfortable and not have to wait in line for sometimes over an hour,” Randy and co-owner Damion Moore share. Dame’s new space, housed on the ground floor of Liberty Warehouse Apartments, will be close to double the square footage of their old spot on West Main Street. Much like Scratch chose to move to a trendy part of town (Lakewood), Dame’s settled on their Liberty location in the Geer Street corridor because that area also shows significant signs of growth, not to mention Liberty Warehouse has its own parking deck in which 75 spaces are allotted for retail customers, helping mitigate the growing downtown parking dilemma. For these older Durham restaurants, the timing worked out. They were established before the market was hot, and as the city grew, so did their
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brand and reputation, so now they can make these critical moves. But for newbies, it might be more difficult to get a foot in the door. Even for established restaurants, the cost of leasing downtown has become a huge barrier, and some have sadly closed. We also see it in areas like Ninth Street, where eateries like Francesca’s have closed due, at least in part, to steep increases in rent. Navigating the leasing maze, and quite frankly affording it, is not easy. This has prompted restaurants such as Beyù Caffè and Old Havana Sandwich Shop to move and take the leap to space ownership.
PURCHASING POWER
After a couple of years searching for leasing options (even outside of Durham), Old Havana owners Elizabeth Turnbull and Roberto Copa Matos started looking for a space to purchase for their new concept, COPA. “Given our connection to Durham and our belief in the importance of locally supported business, it was our preference to lease from independent landlords,” Roberto says. “But [local landlords] have less inventory, and typically less capital to help tenants with build-out.” And many of the available spaces downtown are on the small side. With this in mind, they simultaneously explored options with some of the new downtown developments. “At the moment, that usually means moving into new construction and starting the build-out from scratch,” Roberto says. “Even with landlords pitching in some of the costs, it runs very high. Not to mention, [out-of-town] development companies have less stake in the local market and can easily opt to work with out-of-state chains or larger local businesses.” The business model is a challenge for small businesses. Lease rates with new developments are currently premium market rate with sizable add-on costs. “In one existing restaurant space owned by a large developer, our rent would have been more than $40 a square foot, bringing our total monthly payment to more than $12,000 for a relatively modest space,” Roberto says. There’s also the vulnerability of lease renewals, true for both large developments and independently owned spaces. Down the road, and