City ends negotiations with company to redevelop old Durham PD headquarters, vote to give DHA a loan

DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) -- Monday night, the Durham City Council voted to end negotiations with The Peebles Company, the company had been tapped to redevelop the old Durham Police headquarters.

City staff was directed to begin planning for interim site programming at 505 W. Chapel Hill St until conditions become "more supportive" for redevelopment.

The building has been vacant since 2018, and the city has been in negotiations with the Peebles Corporation since 2024, after rejecting the company's initial redevelopment proposal. In March, Peebles presented a new mixed-use development plan including housing, office, and retail space, and a hotel.

However, city leaders have expressed concerns about the rising costs of the project.

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"Part of our issue has been we have been moving the goal posts on this project," Mark Anthony Middleton, Mayor Pro Tempore, told ABC11 News earlier this month. "We were in the position where we would have gotten our affordable housing. We would have kept the building, we have had commercial property."

The old Durham Police Department headquarters has become an eyesore along West Chapel Hill Boulevard, and the city continues wrestling with what to do about it.

Also Monday, the City Council voted to give the Durham Housing Authority $1.5 million in loan assistance as the agency is facing a $3 million shortfall.

"This is a request for support, and we're going to step up and do it," Durham Mayor Leonardo Williams said. "The conditions are that the agency has to do everything they possibly can to make sure that they stay functioning."

One of the reasons is that it said 1,200 households are behind on rent, with a little more than 100 households at high risk of eviction.

Two weeks ago, ABC11 spoke with DHA's Chief Executive Officer, Anthony Snell, who said the shortfall also comes after the agency wiped out millions from its reserve.

"I think we invested somewhere between $10-13 million in the McDougald (Terrace) crisis -- about $6 million of that came from our reserves," he said.