Could this Boston developer bring more wet labs, people to downtown Chapel Hill?

A Boston-based developer envisions a new life sciences building in downtown Chapel Hill that could replace the Launch and Blue Dogwood incubators along with several small businesses.

Launch, one of two startup incubators that UNC has downtown, will move into Grubb Properties’ Innovation Hub at 137 E. Franklin and 136 E. Rosemary streets in January, said Matt Gladdek, executive director of the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership.

The future of the Blue Dogwood Public Market and other small businesses is unclear, he said, but the town has reached out to some and will talk with all of them as the newly proposed project advances.

The goal is making sure those businesses find other spaces and don’t have to close for very long, Gladdek said.

Greg Capps, managing director at Longfellow Real Estate Partners, said Friday the company is excited to be bringing its latest project to downtown Chapel Hill.

Details are still being worked out, Capps said, but the project site is 1.84 acres between West Franklin and West Rosemary streets, between the Bicycle Chain store and Cholanad restaurant. A courtyard could replace the current parking lot behind Fifth Third Bank, which is not part of the redevelopment.

The project also could build on all the small pedestrian alleys downtown, better integrating it into the landscape and creating more connections, officials said.

The project is not expected to include housing, and potential retail space is “in flux,” Capps said.

Project site has opportunities, challenges

The building’s main entrance is proposed for Franklin Street, although Mayor Pam Hemminger suggested Friday that the developer also consider a second “entrance” on West Rosemary Street.

Traffic, parking and stormwater also could be key issues, particularly because the site, across Franklin Street from Chipotle restaurant and the Graduate Chapel Hill hotel, is low and prone to flooding.

The news was announced during the regular monthly meeting of the Town Council’s Economic Sustainability Committee. The committee also got an update Friday on the second phase of an anticipated expansion of UNC Health Care’s Eastowne campus, located on U.S. 15-501 near Interstate 40.

Longfellow specializes in life science lab and office space, and has completed several projects in Durham and Morrisville, including in partnership with Duke University, according to its website.

One is the Durham Innovation District, a 1.7 million-square-foot project with Durham-based Measurement Inc. that covers 15 acres, including the former Liggett & Myers cigarette-factory complex.

The company also is behind the Hub in Research Triangle Park, a 250,000-square-foot lab building expected to break ground in the spring.

Bringing companies to downtown

Capps said they didn’t know about the town-gown plan to create a downtown Innovation District until after they started meeting with town staff, UNC, the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership and the Chamber for a Greater Chapel Hill-Carrboro.

There’s a lot of “pretty unique” collaboration right now among commercial and residential developers downtown, he said, noting they have heard from companies that started in Chapel Hill but left to find more room in Durham and Raleigh that they would like to return.

“There’s so much going on in Chapel Hill — the research and development, the innovation is there — so we looked at it as UNC being kind of the anchor to that and all of the companies that we see elsewhere in the market,” Capps said. “We knew that there’s an opportunity to meet that demand. There’s a lot of companies that want to be in Chapel Hill.”

Grubb Properties is one of those companies. In addition to its Innovation Hub, which is being renovated, Grubb is planning another office and wet lab building next door at the current Wallace Parking Deck site and an apartment building at the northeastern corner of East Rosemary and North Columbia streets.

A council committee is expected to discuss a planned biosafety committee later this month, which will consider potential public safety issues from adding more wet lab spaces downtown, Council member Jessica Anderson said.

Capps told The News & Observer that the challenge in collaborating with other developers is finding how everyone can benefit but remain competitive.

“I think if it’s not led correctly from the top, I think that can get a little bit tricky,” he said.

Council feedback, suggestions

Council members offered some initial feedback, including the addition of public gathering spaces, whether that involves moving the building back from the street to create a plaza or using the rooftop.

“I just think it’s going to be an amazing place,” Anderson said. “It’s also going to be a pivotal place downtown ... so really making it gorgeous design, gorgeous placemaking, gorgeous architecture beyond what we’ve seen would be really amazing.”

It also should prioritize Black- and women-owned businesses, and art honoring the history of West Franklin Street as a Black business and residential area, Council member Paris Miller-Foushee said.

“Frankly, Franklin Street has not been a place in which Black folks and other historically marginalized community members felt a part of,” Miller-Foushee said, “and so how do we make the built environment that speaks to those cultures that have not always felt as welcome on Franklin Street.”

The developer should “push the envelope on this one” in creating public interest and using space in unique ways, Council member Michael Parker added. He also encouraged the developer to plan for a future in which other, one-story buildings around the site are also redeveloped and for growing a town without more cars.

“I think not only can this be a great building in and of itself, but it can be sort of a stake in the ground that lays out what does Chapel Hill do going forward for however many years,” Parker said.

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