As a downtown Wilmington redevelopment project continues to reboot, changes are in the works for an agreement between a Wilmington-based development firm and New Hanover County.

Project Grace could include residential and commercial space along with a new, 95,000-square-foot facility housing the Cape Fear Museum and new main branch of the county's public library. Through a development agreement approved in May, the county is working with Wilmington-based firm Cape Fear Development on the project, located at Chestnut, Grace, Second and North Third streets.

According to a news release Wednesday, a revised development agreement up for consideration at the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners' meeting Aug. 7 includes $4.6 million in savings from the May agreement on Project Grace.

"Under the amended agreement, the revised guaranteed maximum price will not exceed $55,942,679 for the construction of the new library and Cape Fear Museum facility, inclusive of parking deck improvements and the development fee," the release stated. "The Board of Commissioners initially approved an agreement with Cape Fear Development in May, and then staff worked with the development team to finalize the design plans, and the project was sent out in a competitive bid process.

"The work to update the drawings with selected value-engineered options, extensive outreach to bidders – inclusive of MWBE outreach, and vendor solicitation efforts were successful and have yielded significant savings for the county."

Bryan Thomas, president and CEO of Monteith Construction, and other members of the Project Grace team, including representatives of Cape Fear Development and architecture firm LS3P, said a cleaning-up and tightening of plans as well as a methodical bid process helped lead to the additional savings.

Monteith did "quite a bit of marketing and outreach to encourage groups of all sizes throughout the state to bid the project. We were fortunate ... we got over 140 bids from different subcontractors for the project, which in our world is about twice what we normally see. It reflects that there's a lot of people in town and in our region [who are] very interested in this project," Thomas said during a media roundtable on the amendment the county hosted Wednesday afternoon.

On Monday, commissioners are expected to determine whether to move forward with the amended agreement.

"If approved, staff will then apply to the Local Government Commission to be heard at its September meeting for the debt issuance to construct the public facility," the release stated.

A previous plan for Project Grace, which has been in the works for more than six years, was shelved when the Local Government Commission, a state division, failed to approve the financing arrangement the county wanted to have with its previous development firm partner on the project, Zimmer Development Co.

County Manager Chris Coudriet said Wednesday he believes the LGC will look more favorably on the new plan for Project Grace and its financing.

"The team has come back and channeled everything that we heard [State Treasurer Dale Folwell and other commissioners say] and this project is reflective of that – primarily, the county issuing the debt [to pay for Project Grace] because of our tremendous borrowing potential," he said, noting that New Hanover has a Triple-A bond rating from Moody's and Standard & Poor's. "We heard the commission. We heard the treasurer: 'Borrow money at your cost.' And so I feel good about the project."