By Ray Gronberg

gronberg@heraldsun.com; 419-6648

DURHAM -- Triangle Transit officials said they've secured the necessary permits and will move ahead later this month with the demolition of an old electrical supply and furniture store on South Duke Street later this month.

The planned demolition of the Graybar Building, at 303 S. Duke St., is meant to clear the way for the eventual construction of a rail transit station and supporting development across from N.C. Mutual Life Insurance Co.

Triangle Transit delayed the move for several months at the request of local preservationists and city officials, but its leaders now say a condemnation order from city Neighborhood Improvement Services leaves them no choice but to go ahead.

Behind-the-scenes efforts to come up with a plan that would incorporate the building into another development or business appear to have failed. Though "a couple of folks" had ideas, none came forward "with a funded plan that was a reasonable alternative," said Wib Gulley, Triangle Transit's general counsel.

The upcoming demolition is expected to cost $346,000 and will also target a former gas station at 404 S. Duke St.

Workers are supposed to fence off the site this week and will begin full-blown teardown work after removing asbestos and lead-based paint. The remainder of the demolition will take 30 to 45 days.

Triangle Transit acquired the Graybar Building from the city in 2005. The 1930s-era structure is about 200 yards from the buildings that house Durham's bus and Amtrak stations.

The station Triangle Transit officials would like to build there would serve commuters making their way between Raleigh, Cary, Durham and Chapel Hill on a proposed rail system.

Funding for the rail project, however, is uncertain. Officials would like to help finance it with a local-option sales tax, but would need to gain citizen support for the levy in a referendum. A vote appears unlikely any time before 2011.

A local preservationist who advocated saving the Graybar Building, Gary Kueber, argued in several online postings earlier this year that there was no need to proceed with demolition given that construction of a rail system isn't going to happen soon.

"One of the more challenging fights for preservation is to compete with fantasy structures," he said in one such posting.

But Gulley said Tuesday the basic problem is that the building has been condemned since February, thanks to problems that include a collapsing roof and an estimated repair bill approaching $1.1 million.

He had previously indicated that preserving a low-rise structure on the site doesn't fit in the long-term plans of Triangle Transit or the private-sector company officials intend to work with to spur development in station areas.

"It's not clear how that becomes part of a multi-story, mixed-use, transit-supportive development there," Gulley said in the late summer.

A City Council member who has been keeping tabs on the situation, Mike Woodard, said Tuesday he'd tried to "broker some kind of partnership" to use the building and maybe save it, but the possibility fell victim to "a timing question."

He didn't elaborate, but the phrase seemingly alluded to Triangle Transit's need to make repairs soon to satisfy the city's NIS versus the ability of potential developers to bring tenants and capital to the table amid the recession.

Tuesday's announcement came as city officials await the outcome of another preservation battle, this one playing about a quarter-mile away and involving a local charter school that wants to take down two houses on Jackson Street.

Permits for those demolitions could be ready Thursday morning, officials said.

Leaders of the charter school, the Healthy Start Academy, want to take down the houses to make way for a playground. But neighbors and council members oppose that, arguing the move would undermine a neighborhood that's on the National Register of Historic Places.

Asked about the parallels between the cases, Gulley said there's a "fundamental difference" because the Jackson Street houses haven't been condemned.

The Graybar Building also differs because it's in a commercial area and not in a local or national historic district.