A North Carolina developer has acquired a large parcel of land in Durham, five months after receiving rezoning approval from the city for a 300-acre mixed-use development. 

Charlotte-based Beacon Partners bought 119 acres in southeast Durham in a $20M deal with longtime partner Stephens Enterprises, the Triangle Business Journal reported.

The land will be used for mixed-use industrial buildings that will be part of a development called Durham Gateway. 

The 119 acres are along Highway 70 and Leesville Road on the edge of Brier Creek. Stephens put the land up for sale in January 2023. 

Durham Gateway is a joint venture with HM Partners and SFRE Holdings. It comprises 1,750 residential units and 1.3M SF of industrial and commercial space that will be built out in two phases. Beacon received rezoning approval for the 300-acre development from the Durham City Council five months ago.

CBRE’s Ann-Stewart Patterson, Austin Nagy and John Hogan handled the leasing and marketing for the project.

While there was some backlash to Durham Gateway when the project was approved in September 2025, Mayor Leo Williams said it would bring substantial benefits to the community.

Beacon has agreed to donate $1M to the Durham Dedicated Housing Fund, $50K to Durham Public Schools’ capital needs, and $350K to a fire and emergency services grant project. Williams also said the project would feature affordable housing options.

A group of property owners is working together on a 402-unit apartment community in Durham. The property, off Hoover Road west of Interstate 885, was assembled over the years, including several much smaller pieces. The property owners include John Warasila, founding principal of Alliance Architecture.

The land is 63 parcels totaling 23.2 acres along Hoover Road, Sater Street, Creasy Street, Hilltop Drive, Felix Street and Miami Boulevard. The group has been assembling the properties since 2019.

The Triangle Business Journal reports that of the 23 acres, just 12 are developable, as the property includes wetlands and a stream. The vacant land has become a dumping ground and the property owners have spent $60,000 to clean up the site.

In addition to the apartment units, 25 percent of the property will be townhomes. Twenty percent of the property will be open space. Five percent of rental units will be designated affordable to residents earning 60 percent of the area median income.

Pfizer sold its flex building at the Imperial Center in Durham to Lightstone Group for $41.1 million. The property is at 1219 Shiloh Glenn Drive, between Research Triangle Park and the Raleigh-Durham International Airport. The Class B building is 82,054 square feet and sits on 15.69 acres. It is a cGMP building with multi-product production spaces, supporting workspaces, analytical labs and fully redundant building systems.

The Triad Business Journal reports in early 2023, Pfizer began looking to offload the Durham facility as part of a shift in the company’s research and development strategy. By the end of 2023, the company confirmed plans to shut down operations at the site and another facility in Morrisville, which Pfizer does not own. The closures were part of a companywide cost-cutting effort.

Cushman & Wakefield represented Pfizer in the recent sale.

The Lightstone Group owns 33 industrial and life sciences properties totaling 1 million square feet across 27 states.  

Crescent Communities started construction on a 400-unit multifamily project in Durham’s University Hill neighborhood. Kyuden Urban Development and NEC Capital Solutions are investing in the project, along with Crescent Communities, which obtained a construction loan from Santander Bank. The Triangle Business Journal reports that The Novel UHill is expected to cost over $100 million to build.

Novel UHill is on two parcels totaling 6.5 acres at 3737 Durham Chapel Hill Boulevard and 3019 Auto Drive. Crescent acquired the properties in two separate transactions for $8.8 million.

The developer plans to open the first apartments at the end of 2026. The entire project should be complete by the end of 2027. Townhomes will also be part of the project.

Rental rates will be between $1,900 for a studio and upwards of $4,000 for 3-bedroom townhomes. The apartments will range from studios to three bedrooms and be between 600 and 1,500 square feet. The townhomes will have two- and three-bedroom options and average about 1,800 square feet.

Healthcare Realty Trust sold two Durham area medical office buildings for a combined $20 million. AW Property acquired both properties: the Duke Health Center for $15.2 million and the UNC Family Medicine Center for $5 million.

Healthcare Realty Trust acquired both buildings in 2021, one for $16 million and the other for $5 million.

The Duke Health Center is fully leased. Tenants include Duke Children’s Primary Care and Duke Department of Neurology. The Class-B medical facility, which was built in 1999 and renovated in 2015, has 41,036 square feet of space across two stories.

The other building AW Property Co. bought was the UNC Family Medicine Center at 5704 Fayetteville Road. The UNC Family Medicine Center provides services for newborns to aging adults. The single-story Class-B building, built in 2005, has 11,924 square feet of medical office space and is fully leased.

Publicly traded Eastgroup Properties (NYSE: TPX) announced it purchased a 275,000-square-foot newly constructed industrial property just outside Raleigh for approximately $54 million during its quarterly report. This property, which is 100% leased, represents the Company’s entry into the Raleigh-Durham market, which has been a target market for EastGroup for several years.

Named 147 Exchange, it sits on 20 acres near the interchange of Highway 147 and Interstate 885 at 933 Ellis Road. Eastgroup bought the property from a Mississippi investment trust.

During the first quarter of 2024, EastGroup began construction of two new development projects in San Antonio and Tampa. The projects will total 388,000 square feet and have projected total costs of $52,100,000. The development projects started in 2024.

Eastgroup contends the industrial market remained resilient for them, producing a number of other strong metrics, such as percent leased, same-store net operating income growth, and quarterly releasing spreads. 

Ardent Companies has updated its plans for redeveloping a Durham Coca-Cola Bottling Company warehouse. The new development will include 370 apartments, 35 townhomes and nearly 70,000 square feet of retail space, including a grocery store.

The company is hoping to break ground in the first quarter of 2025. If it follows that timeline, the development will open in the third quarter of 2026.

The multifamily units will be a mix of studio, one, two and three-bedroom units in a seven-story building. The Triangle Business Journal reports that retail will be in six buildings, one for the grocer and five for new retailers. The grocery space will be 23,291 square feet, and the remaining buildings will hold about 15 retailers.

The Durham Coca-Cola bottling facility, built in 1961, is at 3214 Hillsborough Road, near Duke University Hospital. The more than 100,000-square-foot warehouse is on 11 acres and is assessed at about $4.5 million.

Urban Standard Capital recently closed a $7.95 million, 18-month, non-recourse construction completion loan for a Class A mixed-use rental property in Durham, NC. 

At completion, the borrower, Abranova Real Estate, will deliver 48,000 square feet of 37 residential units, 5,000 square feet of co-working space, and 1,500 square feet of retail space. Property renters will also have access to the basketball court, dog park and walking paths at the borrower’s recently completed and neighboring townhome project.

“The amenity sharing between the borrower’s two projects provides 555 Abranova with the same comforts as the 200+ unit comparable properties while retaining a quiet, private, boutique feel because it’s only 37-units,” added Urban Standard’s Vishal Hotchandani.

Site work is complete. Framing has begun and the property will attain a Certificate of Occupancy in  the fourth quarter of 2024 or first quarter of 2025.