INC NEWS - Duke as landlord; Neighbors praise property buyout (Duke Chronicle)

[John Schelp]

Neighbors praise property buyout
Duke Chronicle (3 March 2006)

Duke's recent purchase of notorious off-campus party
houses has already drawn rave reviews from Durham
residents.

Homeowners in the Trinity Park neighborhood near East
Campus said they strongly support the University's
decision-announced Tuesday-to pay $3.7 million for
properties owned by the rental firm Trinity
Properties.

"Everybody's really pleased," said Jen Minelli, a
director of the Trinity Park Neighborhood Association
whose home at 602 N. Buchanan Ave. is surrounded by
houses rented by undergraduates.

"I don't think you would find anyone in the
neighborhood who isn't happy with this," Minelli
added. "The situation with the students for the past
five years or so had become untenable."

The purchased houses include 203 Watts St., the site
of an alleged 2001 sexual assault that led to the
disaffiliation of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, and
508 N. Buchanan Blvd., where the off-campus fraternity
Eta Prime held a baby oil wrestling match that drew
national attention in January 2005.

Although the Duke subsidiary that bought the houses,
Durham Realty, will honor current contracts, it will
not sign further leases. It plans to sell all of the
homes to owner-occupants.

University officials and the owner of Trinity
Properties-Guy Solie, Trinity '67-said discussions
related to the purchase began in October.

"I never approached Duke. We just happened to go to
lunch together and began to respect each other," Solie
said. "It was a delightful negotiation."

Trinity Park resident Ellen Dagenhart said
transferring the homes to private families will
improve the appearance of the neighborhood. She said
that the properties had fallen into poor condition
under Solie's management.

"Durham as a community is judged by visitors and
newcomers on its appearance," Dagenhart said. "It will
help property values, yes, but it will also help Duke,
so people visiting won't look across the street and
say, 'Why does that look like the devil or crap?' or
whatever you want to call it."

Solie disagreed with those who criticized his property
management.

He said he stopped acquiring homes in Trinity Park 15
years ago, and he defended the quality of the housing
he provided.

"I think these places were very well-maintained," he
said. "They were wonderfully built in their day. We've
made sure the structures have been modernized."

Dagenhart, Minelli and other Trinity Park residents
said the frequency and intensity of off-campus parties
has increased dramatically in the past five years.

In 2001 the University unveiled a new alcohol policy
that featured harsher penalties for underage drinking
and required all parties to be registered and staffed
by trained party monitors.

The Hideaway-a popular bar located in the West Union
Building-also closed that year, further limiting
alcohol access on campus.

Such developments pushed many students to take their
partying into nearby neighborhoods, like Trinity Park.

"It reflects poorly on the administration that there
was an overflow onto the outlying areas of this
repugnant behavior," Minelli added. "Just because they
don't want it on their campus doesn't mean people who
live near campus should have to put up with it."

Solie countered that Trinity Park residents are too
critical of Duke students.

"Infrequently people would have a party and bother the
neighbors," he said. "I'm shocked at how poorly some
of the students were treated. It's a two-way street."

Solie said turning the homes over to owner-occupants
will make Trinity Park safer and more pleasant.

"There are students that are genuinely afraid to go
off-campus," he added. "I think the ramification of
this is to make the Trinity Park neighborhood a
stable, desirable place to live."

John Schelp, the president of the Old West Durham
Neighborhood Association, said selling the older homes
to renovation-minded owners will increase the
properties' historic values.

"Many of the houses near East Campus are homes that
need to be treasured and preserved, and this move will
promote historic preservation," he said.

****

Column: Duke as landlord
Duke Chronicle (2 March 2006)

The impact of the University's latest real estate deal
is still echoing through campus and the surrounding
community. And it seems unlikely that the seismic
waves generated by the purchase will peter out any
time soon.

Earlier this week, area landlord Guy Solie announced
that he had sold a dozen homes and three vacant lots
in the Trinity Park neighborhood to Durham Realty, an
arm of Duke. Suddenly, multiple students living in
these off-campus houses found themselves paying rent
to the school.

The implications of this transfer have hardly begun to
play themselves out, but at the moment this appears to
be an adept move for the University-even though it
looks like a major blow to the off-campus social
scene.

Many of the sold houses are large, dilapidated places
where students live in large groups and throw massive
parties. At the beginning of each year, many of these
houses are repeatedly cited by the police for noise
violations and offenses related to underage drinking.
And each year, neighbors in the area complain about
trash and disrespectful behavior. While many of these
parties have recently become somewhat tamer, the rash
of bad August publicity paints Duke students as
spoiled kids with little regard for others.

With Duke as the landlord, that will certainly change.
The University has not announced a complete plan of
its intentions for the properties, but it has implied
that students will not remain the renters for much
longer. Duke will honor currently signed leases, but
after that, it hopes to sell the houses to people who
will live in them rather than rent them out.

Even students who have already signed leases will have
the option to defect. Many of these houses are zoned
to legally allow only three people to occupy them, but
students regularly live with five and six people. Duke
has already stated that it will stringently enforce
the zoning rules.

All these restrictions will no doubt ease the impact
on neighbors, and it looks like the days of 300-plus
person parties on Buchanan Street are over for good.

The problem-for both students and administrators-is
that the parties hosted in those house will not simply
disappear. They will move.

Certainly, some of them will move further off campus
to other rental houses. With that kind of migration
will come dangers of students wandering through
potentially unsafe areas and the increased temptation
of drunk driving. No matter where the large-scale
parties occur, neighbors will be upset. The advantage
of housing the parties adjacent to campus was that at
least the neighbors were aware of their proximity to a
college when they moved in. The town-gown relation
issues might now simply be disseminated over a larger
area.

Still, there is a chance that with the closing of this
social outlet, some parties and drinking might move
back on campus. The stringent no-underage-drinking
policy has slackened slightly in the past year. If it
has loosened enough, perhaps some students will
venture to West Campus instead of into town.

This marks the end of another chapter of Duke's social
life. The question is: When is Duke going to
publically address this evolution with students?