Next week, Wilmington City Council will consider selling the former bus depot on Castle Street. On paper, it’s an easy choice: as part of the sealed-bid process, the city has to accept the highest offer, which came from developer David Spetrino or start over. Gerard Newkirk, co-founder of Wilmington-based non-profit Genesis Block, hopes the city will reconsider the latter option.
The Greater Wilmington Business Journal booked George Taylor Jr. for its Power Breakfast series, eager to offer a rare chance for attendees and the public to hear directly the Tru Colors CEO’s account of the brewery’s closure and the end of its at-times controversial social mission. In an unmoderated appearance that provided no opportunity for questions, Taylor blamed news reporting for his company’s failure and called on business and community leaders to ‘be skeptical of the media.’
The tragic double homicide at the home of Tru Color's chief operating officer, the son of the company's founder, caught the interest of writer Charles Bethea last summer. For the better part of a year, he researched a long-form piece on the company. The roughly 8,000-word profile appeared in the Monday, September 5 print edition. Two days later, Tru Colors CEO George Taylor Jr. announced the company was shutting down. WHQR caught up with Bethea to talk about the article and the fallout from its publication.