Intersouth Partners, which has called Durham home since it launched in 1985, is moving to Durham’s city center, giving up space at the American Tobacco Historic District.
The venture capital firm will move to Durham’s Historic Fire Station #1 at Rogers Alley.
Intersouth said Tuesday that it has signed a new lease agreement and will move in on July 1.
Intersouth has been based at the American Tobacco Campus since 2004 and was one of the first major firms to pick the restored complex as a corporate home.
Capitol Broadcasting, the corporate parent of WRALTechWire, owns the American Tobacco complex.
Intersouth spokeswoman Suzanne Cantando said that while American Tobacco is a great location, the firm simply had too much space there. Intersouth leases 10,000 square feet in the renovated tobacco facility.
The firm has used that space to incubate some of its portfolio companies over the years, including Viamet and Zenph Studios. But right now, much of the space remains unused so Intersouth looked around for new space.
“We looked all over the Triangle,” Cantando said. “But particularly after being at a place like American Tobacco, we didn’t want to go to a traditional office space. And we wanted to be where the entrepreneurs are.”
At the fire station, Intersouth will occupy 3,126 square feet. Intersouth will occupy the second floor of the two-story building and will be the building’s only tenant. The fire station’s previous tenant was design consulting firm Kimley-Horn and Associates. The first floor is currently unfinished.
The historic fire station was originally built around 1890 and was home of the Golden Belt Hose Company’s primarily volunteer firefighting squad. It was rebuilt in 1924, designed for what was then Durham’s recently created professional fire department. Greenfire Development, a Durham developer that has restored multiple historic downtown Durham buildings, renovated the firehouse in 2007.
“Downtown Durham is home to many members of the Triangle’s start-up community and we love being in the center of that creativity and energy,” Dennis Dougherty, Intersouth Partners founding partner said in a statement. “As early-stage venture capital investors, our top priority is to support entrepreneurial spirit and growth. The revitalization of downtown Durham and our move to the Fire Station at Rogers Alley is a physical extension of that philosophy.”
