In recent weeks, construction workers began clearing out the five-story historic Trust building at the corner of Market and Main streets and adjacent the new 21c Museum Hotel in the heart of downtown Durham.
They’re painting its 110-year-old exterior ornamentation and prepping its floors, walls and ceilings for the modern and brightly-colored look and feel of its neighbor across the street, the building that houses 215 startup companies and 700 workers and has become known as American Underground @Main.
In January, less than a year after completing a two-floor expansion on Main Street, American Underground (parent company of ExitEvent) will open its third Durham startup campus in the Trust building. Once North Carolina’s tallest tower, the structure has a history of entrepreneurism—it was occupied by two high-profile banker entrepreneurs and was home to Durham’s first elevator.
Inside the new American Underground @Market Street will be two floors of 25 offices for startup teams of five or 10 to occupy after they graduate from coworking desks or smaller offices across the street. The ground floor will house the flagship retail store of Runaway LLC, an American Underground tenant and designer of the popular DURM clothing line, and a free community Beatmaking Lab where the nonprofit ARTVSM will help Durham’s youth create digital projects that range from coding to radio to film to music production.
On the top two floors will sit the 75 employees of marketing automation software company Windsor Circle, a poster child for both American Underground, where its first 12 employees moved in 2013 and grew the team until now, and Durham’s increasingly nationally-recognized startup community. The Durham Convention & Visitors Bureau will also move its staff and Visitors Center to the building’s first floor.
Read the full story at ExitEvent: http://exitevent.com/article/american-underground-expands-again-in-durham-150810
(Note: ExitEvent is a news partner of WRAL TechWire.)
