Business View Magazine
9
(NRSA), which is not terribly common for cities to use.
Part of the uniqueness of this project is that it used a
HUD Section 108 loan – essentially borrowing funds
against future Community Development Block Grant
(CDBG) allocations. And that up-front loan enabled a
lot of the critical infrastructure to be put in place for the
overall project components in the Southside Neighbor-
hood Revitalization Strategy Area.”
Rounding out the Southside revitalization project is
the conversion and expansion of a long-vacant historic
high school building into 79 units of affordable rental
housing for seniors. “The Whitted School is another
collaborative partnership the City of Durham entered
into with the Durham Public Schools and Durham
County who owned the boarded-up three story struc-
ture,” Johnson noted. “The Whitted School is historic
both because of its circa 1922 architecture, but also
because it was the City’s first high school built to edu-
cate African Americans. The strategic investment in
Whitted took an eyesore that was a drag on the neigh-
borhood and is turning it into a positive; a completely
refurbished multi-generational facility combining el-
derly housing with 11 pre-kindergarten classrooms
to be operated through the Durham Public Schools.”
The City invested $600,000 of federal funds into the
project, along with investment by Durham County and
the Durham Public Schools. The developer, the Inte-
gral Group of Atlanta, leveraged an allocation of Low
Income Housing Tax Credits and Historic Tax Credits to
help fund the approximately $23 million project.
In addition to the Southside project, Johnson high-
lights an ongoing relationship the City of Durham has
with Habitat for Humanity, the well-known, nonprofit
housing organization. “Another positive neighborhood
development initiative we’re proud of is a partnership
with Habitat for Humanity,” he says. The Department
works together with Habitat to revitalize another area-
adjacent to downtown, North East Central Durham.
“The City provides second mortgages at zero percent
interest for the homes that Habitat builds or rehabili-
tates and then sells to low- to moderate-income first
time homebuyers.” North East Central Durham has
