Contracts for a new $25.5 million opioid and alcohol addiction treatment center are on the agenda for the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners meeting next week.

County staff are recommending approval of the preliminary guaranteed maximum price, the overall project budget and the transfer of contracts from Trillium Health Resources to New Hanover County, according to the county agenda.

In August, New Hanover County Commissioners voted to contract with Kentucky-based The Healing Place to operate the new 200-bed facility, set to be constructed on nearly 9 acres at 1000 Medical Center Drive in Wilmington.

Trillium Health is partnering with the Kentucky firm to run the facility. The Healing Place is a recovery program and model that’s used in facilities in Kentucky, Virginia and North Carolina.

The treatment center met with some controversy over the years, including a lawsuit, which was dropped last year.

Trillium Health in 2015 proposed a new treatment model to address the challenges the community is facing with the opioid crisis as well as alcohol addiction, county documents state. The following year, Wilmington was identified in a national report that labeled the city as one of the top in America for opioid abuse.

The nearly 9-acre tract on Medical Center Drive was transferred by Trillium Health to the county in 2018 for the facility’s construction.

Project designs, which have been developing since 2016, show five buildings for administration and education, dining and shelter, men’s residential, women’s residential and detox, according to county documents.

The Healing Place of New Hanover County is in the final permitting stages with the bidding process underway.

“If the project is approved, we will start construction on February 1, 2021 and final completion by April 2022,” county officials said in the agenda.

The New Hanover County Board of Commissioners are scheduled to meet at 4 p.m. Dec. 7 in room 301 of the New Hanover County Historic Courthouse located at 24 N. Third St.