Though startups have had a presence in downtown Durham for years, efforts by Downtown Durham Inc. and American Underground beginning in 2010 drove attention to them locally, nationally and globally. Providing a brief history of those initiatives, Downtown Durham’s COO Matthew Coppedge stopped by American Underground to share with tenants plans to drive more companies, residents and visitors to the city.
Highlights include the planned conversion of a trio of car dealerships along 147 into new gateway projects to downtown, continued work by Duke University and developers on an Innovation District and ongoing efforts to bring more residential units and hotel rooms to the city.
Coppedge also shares some insights he and his team have gleaned from redeveloping cities like Denver and Indianapolis. And he addresses difficult topics like affordable housing and maintaining the culture and heritage of Durham even as it changes.
His talk begins at 4:25 in the video. Tatiana Birgisson begins with an update on sales of Mati Energy drinks on Amazon and beyond, as well as recent lessons learned in growing her distribution.
