In Durham, Downtown Building Still Booms Sho Hatakeyama I 9th Street Journal This apartment building in the making on East Pettigrew Street is expected to contain more than 200 apartments. If you havenât visited downtown Durham much during the pandemic, hereâs an update: The building boom did not stop while you were gone. On Rigsbee Avenue, white cement trucks, pick ups, orange cones and workers cluster around a half-finished apartment building, its towering shadow covering the whole block. Next to American Tobacco Campus, yellow cranes sit near the early stages of three new buildings of commercial and residential space. Nearly an entire block off Fernway Avenue near West Village is vacant and fenced off, ready for more apartments.