New Hanover County Commissioners held a public hearing on plans to move forward with Cape Fear Development in building Project Grace. The project will create a new downtown library and relocate the Cape Fear Museum on the north side of the current downtown library block bordered by 2nd, 3rd, Chestnut, and Walnut streets. It would also involve the sale of the north side of the block to Cape Fear Development (CFD) for at least $3.5 million; CFD would then construct a private mixed-use development.
Under the previous agreement with Zimmer Development, the county would have entered into a lease-to-own deal over 20 years — an arrangement that would have added between millions to the total price tag. The lease-to-own deal drew the ire of the Local Government Commission (LGC), the arm of the State Treasurer's office which reviews major municipal and county financial transactions; the LGC eventually rejected the plan. With the new development agreement, the county will own everything from the start, using debt as the financing option.
Due to inflation and rising construction costs, the county will need to pay an extra $4.5 million for the project compared to estimates from several years ago.
Regardless of changes from now until the plans are finalized, the $60.5 million cost agreed on by Cape Fear Development and the County won’t change. During the meeting, Commissioner Rob Zapple asked to confirm that.
“What I’m hearing here, is that in this case, with Cape Fear Development, the price will never go beyond 60.5," he asked.
Staff confirmed.
A point discussed at length was how the parking deck would change under the new plans. The county can re-stripe the deck, which would bring the parking spaces up to approximately 600, generating more revenue. The county and Cape Fear Development will arrange to share those spots — those details haven't been confirmed yet.
Since the deck will be enclosed by new buildings, connectivity needs to be worked out with the deck. Solar panels will still be installed with this new plan. Originally the county would not have received a tax credit for those panels, but since the law recently changed, they will still see a benefit.
Critics of the development agreement, including the Save Our Main Library group, have continued to ask for an adaptive reuse project, citing the historical status of the former Belk building that now houses the library, and the sizeable amount of debris from demolishing that building that would then go to the county landfill, which is already running short of space. Brian Eckel, the developer spearheading the project, has said his firm investigated the possibility of such a project, but that it would have involved effectively tearing the building down to its girders and rebuilding it — a plan that could not be made financially viable.
The board voted unanimously to approve the development agreement.
