Durham City Council just rezoned 100 acres where bricks were made since 1929, and SpaceCraft’s cramming in 1,880 homes. The old Borden Brick and Tile plant that helped build Durham’s tobacco warehouses is history. They’re promising 90 affordable units, walkable neighborhoods, and 49,500 square feet of shops. Sure, it sounds progressive, but locals aren’t thrilled about bulldozing their heritage for another apartment complex. The real story gets messier from here.
When the Durham City Council rezoned nearly 100 acres of old brickyard land in January 2025, they basically gave a green light to transform a chunk of industrial history into something wildly different. SpaceCraft, the developer taking on this massive project, plans to squeeze 1,880 residential units onto land that once churned out bricks for Durham’s tobacco warehouses. Talk about a glow-up.
The site used to be home to Borden Brick and Tile, which started operations back in 1929. Before that, Durham’s brick industry was already booming, thanks to folks like Richard B. Fitzgerald and the Duke family. These weren’t just any bricks. They built the backbone of Durham’s industrial empire, literally holding up those iconic tobacco factories.
Durham’s brick makers literally built the city’s industrial backbone, one tobacco warehouse at a time.
Now those old clay pits and kilns will make way for apartments, townhouses, and 49,500 square feet of mixed-use space. Durham’s downtown witnessed similar transformations between 1950 and 2000, with historic buildings like the Jones Market demolished in 1959 to make way for new development.
SpaceCraft specializes in cramming lots of people into small spaces, but they call it “high-density urban development.” Fair enough. The plan includes 90 affordable units, priced at 60% of area median income. That’s something, at least. The whole thing emphasizes walkability, transit access, and sustainability. Because nothing says sustainable like paving over 100 acres of former industrial land.
The transformation hasn’t been smooth. The old brickyard left behind weird topography and probably a bunch of environmental nightmares that need cleaning up. SpaceCraft spent two years revising their plans, dealing with the site’s quirks and community input.
Engineering solutions had to get creative. You can’t just plop down cookie-cutter housing on land that’s been torn up by decades of clay extraction. Development will actually use only 23 acres of the site, leaving most of the land untouched.
Durham’s brick industry connects to stories of African American entrepreneurship, including figures like Fitzgerald and Abner Jordan. That legacy gets harder to see when it’s buried under nearly 2,000 housing units.
But Durham needs homes, desperately. The commercial spaces might foster local businesses. Walking trails could improve community health. The tax base will definitely grow.
It’s progress, maybe. Just depends on who you ask and whether they remember what used to be there.