American Tobacco Historic District
318 Blackwell St
Suite 150
Durham, NC 27701-3600
(919) 433-1566

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American Tobacco Campus

Overview
Located on Blackwell Street across from the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, the American Tobacco Campus undertaking is the largest historic renovation project ever in North Carolina. The American Tobacco plans include business, commercial and residential space.

The sagging giant sat empty until CBC came to its rescue, transforming the 16-acre campus into a thriving business community. The project is bringing thousands of jobs to downtown Durham, both through the construction and the many businesses leasing space in the 11 buildings.

The City of Durham and Durham County chipped in $43.2 million to building parking decks for the complex. Anchor tenants GlaxoSmithKline, Duke University, Compuware and McKinney & Silver signed on and the project got underway.

History
On April 15, 2002, after three years of research and planning, the A.J. Fletcher Foundation purchased the 16-acre abandoned American Tobacco Campus in downtown Durham to lease the property to Capitol Broadcasting Company long-term. CBC immediately began the arduous task of converting the sleeping giant in serious disrepair into a thriving business center.

The American Tobacco Company had made cigarettes in the factory for 100 years before relocating in 1987. The over one million square feet of the campus needed extensive environmental cleanup before construction could begin. The clean-up started in January 2002, and an official groundbreaking on the first phase of construction took place on June 16, 2003. The first tenant, GlaxoSmithKline, moved into its office space on June 24, 2004, the same day MIX 101.5 held its first Durham Alive After Five at the complex.

CBC maintained preserving the historic integrity of the property as a high priority and began work on American Tobacco by restoring the 180-ft brick Lucky Strike smokestack in 2002.

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