Update: North Carolina city postpones potential demolition project

The city government of Wilmington, North Carolina, started a bidding process in mid-May in the event that it goes ahead with the demolition of a five-story office building it owns in the downtown region of the city.

According to an online report on the Port City Daily website, the five-story building with an attached two-story annex at one time housed the city of Wilmington’s administrative offices.

A preliminary meeting for potential bidders that the news organization calls mandatory was held Tuesday, May 21, at the property site, just one week after the bid proposal was announced.

However, the following day another Wilmington area media outlet has reported the city has paused the demolition bidding process. The WilmingtonBiz websites quotes a city government staff member as saying the bid process “has been postponed until further notice while staff further evaluates the specifications of the request for proposal.”

According to a one-page bid notice available through the city’s website, resulting bids were due June 6 and were to have been opened that afternoon at the city’s purchasing division office. That document also lists haulers as among the subcontractors for whom opportunities may exist on the project.

The former bank office building was constructed in 1959 and acquired by the city in the late 1990s. It housed city government employees for about two decades. Last year, however, the city of Wilmington a different former commercial building and subsequently has consolidated its workforce there.

The empty structure as consists of slightly more than 100,000 square feet and photos show a largely concrete exterior.

Despite the bidding process, a city spokesperson tells the Port City Daily that no decision to demolish the structure has been made.

The city may still hold out hope that a buyer or tenants for the building can be found, although the report also refers to some $4 million in repairs estimated to be needed at the site.

Whether the building remains occupied or is demolished, asbestos abatement also will be part of the process, per the findings of a recent environmental assessment.

Regarding potential recycling outcomes from the demolition project, if it happens, the Port City Daily says, “All material in the building will become the property of the winning bidder, responsible for properly disposing materials, including recyclables, and preserving ‘historic architectural components for sale or donation.’”