April 23, 2026 — Thursday Edition
Happy Thursday, Durham. The dogwoods are still showing off, AbbVie just dropped a $1.4 billion bomb on the county's economic map, and for three days starting tomorrow night, the historic Durham Athletic Park turns back into the kind of ballpark that beer leagues write songs about. Add Alison Krauss at DPAC for two nights and an 89° Friday, and we have a weekend. Let's get into it.
What's Up Durham
AbbVie is building a $1.4B manufacturing campus in Durham. Governor Stein announced it Tuesday: 185 acres, 734 permanent jobs averaging $118K a year, plus ~2,000 construction jobs while it goes up. Groundbreaking this year, doors open end of 2028. It's the biggest single-campus investment in AbbVie's history and their first major play in North Carolina. Axios Raleigh
Spectrum breaks ground on 267 new apartments in Trinity Park. Vara Trinity Park is a luxury multifamily project going up in one of Durham's most architecturally protected neighborhoods — which, depending on how you squint, is either a sign of momentum or a sign the rent squeeze isn't slowing. Multi-Housing News
Duke commits $203M over three years to Durham hiring and housing. Announced in March, the initiative targets local hiring pipelines, employee housing support, and investment in Durham small businesses. Real numbers attached to real neighborhoods. Duke Today
Community Engagement Mini-Grants open tomorrow. The City's 2026 round drops Friday, April 24 — modest dollars for block parties, neighborhood projects, small cultural events. If you've got an idea sitting on a shelf, this is the week. City of Durham
Event Spotlight: Fifth Annual Sandlot Revival 🎉
If you haven't been, picture this: a grass infield at the historic Durham Athletic Park, fifteen sandlot teams in handmade uniforms, beer pouring, BBQ smoking, kids running loose along the dugouts, and ten games of baseball played by adults who are decidedly not getting paid for it. The Sandlot Revival is three days of scrappy, joyful, completely-not-serious baseball from teams that drive in from as far as New York and New Orleans just to be here.
This is the fifth year, which means it's old enough now to feel like a tradition and young enough that the beer line is still short at 1 p.m. The event is a fundraiser for the Long Ball Program, which runs baseball + academic coaching for Durham youth, and for Somos Siembra, a Durham org supporting Latine immigrant families. So every Natty Lite and every pulled-pork sandwich is doing double duty.
Pro tips: the old DAP is walkable from downtown — park once and stay all afternoon. Bring a blanket, because bleacher seating is limited and the outfield grass is the move. Sunscreen is mandatory (Friday hits 89). Leashed dogs welcome. Kids eat free on at least one of the days; check the schedule at the gate.
Friday, April 24 – Sunday, April 26, 2026
Historic Durham Athletic Park, 500 W Corporation St
Free admission (food, drinks, merch on site)
Food & Drink Roundup 🍽️
Red Phone Booth is coming to 125 Orange Street. The speakeasy-and-pizza concept is targeting a May opening downtown — the kind of hidden-doorway joint that either becomes your anniversary spot or your running joke, depending on how seriously they take the bit. NC Triangle Dining
Fullsteam is expanding into the Powerplant at ATC. Sean Lilly Wilson's fiercely local brewery is planting a second flag inside the restored Powerplant building at American Tobacco Campus. Watch that brick corner finally get a tenant that deserves it.
Gyu-Kaku is landing on Hunt Street. The Japanese BBQ-at-your-table chain is headed to 214 Hunt St, Suite 100 later this year — sizzling grills slotting into the Central Park restaurant corridor.
Bar Virgile's spring cocktail menu is having a moment. If you haven't been in a month, go. The bartenders are cooking. Bar Virgile
The Short List 🎤
Alison Krauss & Union Station feat. Jerry Douglas — Fri 4/24 & Sat 4/25, 7:30 p.m., DPAC. First tour in 14 years. You don't need me to sell this one. DPAC
Fifth Annual Sandlot Revival — Fri 4/24 – Sun 4/26, historic DAP. Free. (See spotlight.) Details
Armand Hammer (billy woods + ELUCID) — Fri 4/24, 9 p.m., Motorco. Among the most interesting things in rap right now, in a 500-cap room. Motorco
NC Vintage Bazaar — Sat 4/25, Boxyard RTP. 40 vendors of vintage clothing + accessories, live DJ, food and beer — the whole parking-lot-turned-fair setup. Boxyard RTP
Piedmont Farm Tour — Sat 4/25 & Sun 4/26, 2–6 p.m. (some farms 12 p.m.). One $35 carload pass gets you access to working farms across the region — goats, greenhouses, the whole spring-on-the-farm thing. Farm Tour info
Floetry feat. Raheem DeVaughn (w/ Teedra Moses) — Sun 4/26, 7 p.m., DPAC. Date-night layup. "Say Yes," etc. DPAC
Bulls Corner 🐂
Bulls are still on the road, wrapping up a six-game set against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs in Allentown through Sunday. Record is a rough 7-12 and the bats have been mostly quiet, but there are two or three Tampa Bay prospects who could get the call any day. Good news: they're back at the DBAP on Tuesday, April 28 to open a homestand against Jacksonville, which is a solid excuse to buy tickets next week.
📍 Durham Bulls Athletic Park, 409 Blackwell St ·Schedule
Weekend Weather ☀️
Warm start, wet middle, cool finish. Friday 89°F and partly cloudy — shade is your friend. Saturday 84°F with a chance of afternoon thunderstorms — the Sandlot Revival morning games and NC Vintage Bazaar should be fine; keep an eye on the radar by mid-afternoon. Sunday 71°F, clouds and sun, crisp — perfect for the farm tour and Floetry night. Double-check before you commit at the National Weather Service.
What We're Reading 📖
"The Devil's Done Come Back: New Ghost Tales from North Carolina" — edited by Ed Southern, out this spring. Fifteen NC writers and poets reimagining traditional NC ghost stories. Reads like campfire material for people who appreciate a well-built sentence. A good nightstand read for a week where the news is mostly zoning variances and pharmaceutical plants. Find it at a local bookseller (Flyleaf or The Regulator).
Durham Love Note 💙
There's a specific kind of Durham weekend this one's going to be. Somebody is going to take their kid to watch sandlot baseball at the old DAP — the same park where their granddad watched the Bulls before the new one was built — and then walk three blocks for a cold beer at Motorco and catch the tail end of an Armand Hammer set. Somebody's going to cry a little at Alison Krauss. Somebody's going to come home from the farm tour with a goat-milk soap and a vague plan to start a garden.
That range — minor-league nostalgia to avant-garde rap to bluegrass to spring farms — in one zip code, in one weekend, without getting on I-40 — that's the whole case for living here. See you at the park, whichever one you pick.
Made with ❤ in Durham, NC