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Demolition Request, Funding Show Multimodal Center Progress

By Cece Nunn, posted Feb 11, 2016
The former U-Haul facility at 508 N. Third St. is expected to be demolished before April 6 if a city panel grants an N.C. Department of Transportation request tonight. (City of Wilmington photo)
Editor's note: This version has been updated to include the Wilmington Historic Preservation Commission's approval of the N.C. DOT's request and more information about the proposed transportation center site.

An item on a city panel’s agenda Thursday included a sign of progress toward the proposed Wilmington Multimodal Transportation Center.

The N.C. Department of Transportation asked the Wilmington Historic Preservation Commission to reduce the required 90-day stay of demolition for the vacant, former U-Haul facility at 508 N. Third St. In a 9-0 vote, the panel unanimously approved the request Thursday evening.

The DOT wanted to acquire the land with the intent of using the property for the transportation center, according to a letter from a department official to the city. 

"NCDOT had the property appraised and it was valued at $1,210,000.00. NCDOT made an offer to the owner in the same amount. The owner declined NCDOT’s offer. Because the transaction was not completed in a time that would allow NCDOT to maintain the project schedule, condemnation was initiated, and the issue will be resolved through litigation," wrote Larry Wade, corridor and property manager for the department, in an email Thursday evening.

AREC 9 LLC is listed as the property's owner in New Hanover County property tax records.

Built in 1950 and once home to an A&P grocery store, the one-story brick building is considered a non-contributing structure in the Wilmington National Register of Historic Places because of its age, according to preservation commission meeting documents. For that reason, the city staff had recommended that the stay of demolition be reduced, the documents say.

The N.C. DOT wants to remove the structure before the 2016 N.C. Azalea Festival, which begins April 6, explains a letter to the city from Wade. Some other buildings on the site of the proposed center have already been demolished.

But for the former U-Haul site, another step needs to be completed.

"NCDOT is currently having a hazardous material report done on the former U-Haul building.  Once the environmental consultant tells NCDOT what, if any, hazardous materials are in the building (asbestos, etc.), then we will know what, if anything, will need to be done to remediate those materials before the building may be demolished.  NCDOT has promised the City of Wilmington that we will not begin demolition unless we are absolutely sure the building can be removed prior to the Azalea Festival.  If it looks like we cannot meet that deadline we are prepared to wait until the Festival is over to remove the building," wrote Allan Paul, rail division deputy director for the department, in a Thursday email.
 
He said the agreement for transfer of the future transit center properties from the DOT to the city is on the March 2016 Board of Transportation agenda.  "The Board will meet on Wednesday, March 2nd and Thursday, March 3rd.  Once the Board approves the agreement it will be ready for NCDOT signature.  The document should be fully executed within a week of the Board’s action," Paul wrote.

Discussions about the Wilmington Multimodal Transportation Center have been going on since the 1990s, officials estimate. The center is expected to be located between North Third and North Fourth streets between Red Cross and Hanover streets.

According to the agreement the DOT board is expected to consider next month, the Cape Fear Public Transportation Authority, which operates as Wave Transit, would be responsible for the design and construction of the center’s transit portion.

“Our belief is we’re very close to getting construction of the project under way . . .The goal for us is to get it constructed as quickly as possible because we do have some real [safety] concerns and have had for many years about an [existing] on-street transfer system at Second and Princess streets,” said Albert Eby, executive director of Wave Transit.  

A very preliminary timeline puts the center’s completion at 18 to 24 months from now, but it could be finished sooner than that or later, Eby said. A total cost is currently uncertain because the design process isn’t complete, he said.

“There’s just too many unknowns to come up with a good construction estimate” right now, Eby said.

But money for it is in the pipeline. In another recent step forward for the new center, a transportation panel recently allocated $2.4 million to the transportation authority for the transit portion of the multimodal facility, which will replace the transfer station at Second and Princess streets. That panel is the Transportation Advisory Committee of the Wilmington Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, which is working with the DOT, the city and the transportation authority on the transportation center project.

Although recent progress has focused mainly on the bus service portion of the center, plans for the facility include other modes of transportation.

“The Transportation Center is anticipated to bring together local bus service; the downtown trolley; taxis; other public, private and tourist transportation facilities; pedestrian and bike path connections and connections to inter-city and Amtrak buses,” according to an MPO news release on the TAC's decision. “The Center will also serve as the downtown station for future passenger rail service when this service is restored to/from Wilmington.”

Mike Kozlosky, executive director of the Wilmington Urban Area MPO, said the Transportation Advisory Committee’s approval of $2.4 million, a process that will involve the “flexing” of federal highway funds to federal transit funds, was a critical move.

Some of the work the $2.4 million will fund involves renovations to the historic Neuwirth building on the site for a ticketing and waiting area and the construction of a canopy and concourse improvements. A WAVE Transit facilities committee plans to visit multimodal facilities housed in historic properties in Wilson and Rocky Mount to gather information, Eby said.

“Hopefully, we can come up with a project that contributes to the area as well as respects the historic nature of the properties that we’re fixing up,” Eby said. “We’re doing some research right now on what the Neuwirth building looked like when it was constructed.”

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