Buildings' owner seeks more time to bar demolition

By Ray Gronberg

gronberg@heraldsun.com; 419-6648

DURHAM -- City officials say they'll go to court on Monday to convince a judge to uphold their authority to demolish five apartment buildings along Boone Street in east Durham.

They are "opposing any extension" of a temporary restraining order that barred the Neighborhood Improvement Services Department from demolishing the so-called Boone Court complex, Senior Assistant City Attorney Emanuel McGirt said.

Lawyers for the owner of the complex, Haskell Properties, convinced Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson to issue the restraining order on Sept. 10.

They've said NIS reneged on an oral agreement with them to allow Haskell and the family of local landlord James "Fireball" White another chance to renovate Boone Court.

But city officials have countered that any agreement between NIS and the family was contingent on the Whites doing several things -- namely, spelling out a plan for the project, establishing that they have the money to pull it off, hiring a general contractor and securing the necessary permits.

A Haskell Properties-hired contractor has secured an electrical permit for work on one of the buildings, but to date the company hasn't obtained a building permit for a large-scale renovation.

"We feel the city has acted in good faith and given them enough opportunity to do what they needed to do at this point," Neighborhood Improvement Services Director Constance Stancil said.

The city also can point to the company's agreement to a no-appeal provision in the order a federal judge issued over the summer releasing it from a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.

The provision gave the city the right to demolish the property if it wasn't renovated by Aug. 6, and specified that Haskell Properties couldn't take the matter to either federal or state court.

The company's lawyer, Robert Perry, said last week that the city should nonetheless be held to its subsequent bargain with his clients. He could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.

East Durham activists have pressed city officials to get on with the demolition. The complex is across the street from the Durham Housing Authority's Hoover Road public housing complex.

The activists are worried about crime in the area and have indicated they don't trust the White family to maintain the units at Boone Court or the screen tenants properly.