Employee Houses near East Campus Are Selling Fast

Only eight homes remain up for grabs at Duke's Trinity Heights Homesites. Twenty-six of the 37 total units in the development of employee housing adjoining East Campus have been sold or are under contract, and potential homeowners have put a flag on another three. That leaves three lots for a single-family home and five townhouse units available for prospective buyers. "Scarcity is always a nice thing. ... It means we should be finishing up with the project over the summer," said Jeff Potter of the university's real estate administration. The development was started to increase the number of affordable houses close to campus for Duke employees while also letting Duke mesh with the established neighborhood beside it. The craftsman and bungalow-style detached homes were designed to fit in architecturally with the surrounding neighborhood, drawing praise from the Historic Preservation Society of Durham, which recognized the project with its George and Mary Pyne Historic Preservation Award for the year 2000, and the Durham Orange Home Builders Association, which awarded a gold medal in its Fall 2000 Parade of Homes to the Davison model house on Onslow Street. The development offers the city the bonus of an economic infusion, according to university officials, boosting local business and adding approximately $60,000 to property tax coffers annually. While most of the single-family houses and townhouses are still under construction, the first five employees have moved into their new homes, Potter said. Sabrina Lamar, a physical therapist with the ergonomics program, says she'll be glad when the construction phase is completed in Trinity Heights. She and her husband closed on their Berkley home, the mid-size Davison model, on Dec. 22 and moved in New Year's weekend. Their home is only one finished on their street, and they're eager to get to know new neighbors. "It's going well. We've really enjoyed being here so far," she said. The couple had lived only about six miles away, but found almost anytime they wanted to do something, they had to get in the car and drive to it. The convenience of the location sold them on Trinity Heights. "We were just really interested in living in a more centrally located urban environment, so we could walk to restaurants or walk to a grocery store, go out our door and go for a jog in a nice environment like East Campus and the surrounding neighborhood." Lamar said the new home is close enough for her to walk to work, and closer to her husband's van pool stop. "And we're keeping an eye on the plans for the light rail. If it stops on Broad or Swift, that'll certainly change our lives a lot." The Duke development gave Lamar and her husband a chance they hadn't had before to move close to campust, she said. "Trinity Park is such a competitive market. Houses were selling before the signs went up. We could get in this neighborhood this way." The couple is committed not only to a convenient location, but also to developing a sense of community. Lamar said they've met residents in the established neighborhood while walking their dog, and that a number of future Trinity Heights homeowners have come up to their door to introduce themselves and ask questions. The couple also made the most of their decision to build a garage with an apartment - they've rented it to a visiting professor from another country as a way to both meet new people and ease payments. For Eric Pritchard, on faculty with the music department and a member of the Ciompi Quartet, moving to his new Trinity Heights house was like coming home. He'd lived in the neighborhood before, just one block away from his new Onslow Street abode, but had moved to the Duke Forest area. "For us, we like being able to walk to campus and Ninth Street and downtown ... and the feeling when you interact with neighbors more." Potter said he thinks most buyers are like Lamar and Pritchard - interested in convenience and atmosphere that come with living next to campus - but that some may be interested in purchasing for an investment. One hitch in buying in Trinity Heights is that homes can only be sold, or resold, to Duke employees. But if a homeowner must sell and can't find a buyer quickly, Duke will buy back the house or townhouse for the price paid plus whatever the homeowner's put into it, he said. "You're guaranteed to get your money out of it," even if homeowners aren't able to make the profit they'd like. Soccer coach John Barrett thinks he and his wife have made a sound investment with their Onslow Street home. The couple had lived in Chicago prior to moving into Trinity Heights on Halloween. Barrett said "the same things that are happening in Durham happened in Lincoln Park in the '80s" with the increase in housing renovation and small business growth producing a corresponding increase in property value. "It's a great opportunity to be a part of something moving in the right direction," he said. Of the remaining five townhouses available now, three are two-bedroom Jarvis models and two are three-bedroom Hart models. The remaining detached home lot has been approved for construction of a three-bedroom, roughly 1,640-square-foot Crowell model house. For details on floor plans, costs, options and locations, see the development's Web site at http://www.realestate.duke.edu.

Written by Karen Hines.