The redevelopment of the county-owned block in downtown Wilmington that’s currently home to the main library, commonly known as Project Grace, has been through ups and downs.
This most recent proposal will be presented to the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners on May 15. Residents will be able to share feedback during the public hearing portion of the meeting.
Under the proposed agreement, New Hanover County would pay Cape Fear Development around $60 million to relocate the Cape Fear Museum and build a new downtown library adjacent to the existing one, as well as make improvements to the county parking deck.
In exchange, Cape Fear Development would agree to buy the remaining portion of county property for at least $3.5 million.
That would happen after the new library and museum are finished, to ensure people have access to the library throughout the process.
CFD would then demolish the existing library and start building a mixed-use development there within a year. Under the development agreement, CFD would invest at least $30 million into it — or 25% of the cost of construction and renovation of the entire private and public project, whichever is more.
This agreement also addresses the concerns from the Local Government Commission (LGC), the arm of the State Treasurer's office that effectively killed Project Grace in 2022. The LGC shot down the idea of the county leasing to own the library, which they said was not as fiscally responsible as directly financing the library and museum.
Cape Fear Development is partnering with LS3P, the architects for the original Project Grace plan, and Monteith Construction on the new proposal.
If the county approves the development agreement at their meeting May 15, staff would finalize design plans and Cape Fear Development would put out a bid for the construction project this month.
Then a new agreement that has the details of the bid process would be up for approval by New Hanover County commissioners.
From there, the county would take the plan to the LGC for approval at the September meeting.
The New Hanover County Board of Commissioners meeting starts at 9 a.m. on Monday, May 15, in the historic downtown courthouse at 24 N. Third Street.
