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CAPE FEAR MEMORIAL BRIDGE CLOSURE: UPDATES, RESOURCES, AND CONTEXT

Here's why Wilmington will pay a developer $500,000 for an alley in downtown

The Waterfront Park site plan

Wilmington City Council is likely to spend than $500,000 reimbursing a private developer for the construction of an alleyway.

A rendering of the planned Nutt Street Promenade

The planned new alleyway in downtown Wilmington will give access to the Riverfront Park from Harnett, home of the soon-to-open Live Nation venue. The approximately 100-foot long alley will be called the Nutt Street Promenade: a tree-lined brick walkway for pedestrians to get to the park.

The vacant plot of land is currently owned by Virginia-based Kettler, and the city is planning to reimburse that developer for up to half a million dollars in building costs for the city-owned part of that alleyway.

City staff said the alley will be wide enough to accommodate food carts, which will require a permit to operate there.

A rendering of the Kettler development, with the new Riverfront Park in the background.
A rendering of the Kettler development, with the new Riverfront Park in the background.

The land in question is currently empty gravel, but Kettler is set to build a 5-story, mixed-use development on that plot, with two buildings connected by a sky bridge designed to emulate a railroad trestle. Construction of that development will begin in July.

Kelly Kenoyer is an Oregonian transplant on the East Coast. She attended University of Oregon’s School of Journalism as an undergraduate, and later received a Master’s in Journalism from University of Missouri- Columbia. Contact her on Twitter @Kelly_Kenoyer or by email: KKenoyer@whqr.org.