With hopes of developing a gateway to downtown, the city of Wilmington is moving forward with the purchase of a vacant lot along 3rd Street.
The lot will become one of four pieces of land set aside for a development that s been dubbed the northern gateway project. The city aims to eventually build housing, parking, office and retail space, and a grocery store on the site, but COVID-19 has paused its progress for now.
The city s request for project proposals in 2019 yielded one submission a plan from East West Partners, the Chapel Hill-based development company that brought River Place apartments to Wilmington.
EDITOR: “We had a team of consultants…on-site personnel, the general contractor, subcontractors, and the New Hanover County Inspections department looking after our interest and we felt like that was sufficient” lamented Lucien Ellison, senior managing partner of East West Partners for the developer of River Place. Obviously, this was not enough oversight for the $80 million mixed-use and defect-infested downtown building.
As the StarNews recently reported, this brand-new building suffers from mildew, poorly installed drywall, plumbing issues and negative air pressure which causes outside air to freely enter some units.
With apartment residents paying as much as $3,458 per month and condos purchases exceeding $1 million dollars, one would think that renters and owners would expect some degree of quality to their building’s construction. Sadly, at River Place, such is not the case.