Wednesday, February 19, 2025

City halts bids for demolishing Chestnut Street building

The city postponed its RFP for demolishing 305 Chestnut St. (Port City Daily/Shea Carver)

WILMINGTON — The City of Wilmington has amended its requests for proposal on the potential demolition of 305 Chestnut St. For now, it’s pausing the process.

READ MORE: One of city’s surplus properties to pay down Skyline debt faces demolition

According to a city spokesperson, staff is revising the RFP currently but did not have more information to share.

The city’s administrative offices were once located at 305 Chestnut St. before staff transferred into its new headquarters at the Skyline Center.

An environmental assessment determined asbestos was in the building, built in the 1950s. Its valued appraisal is $6 million and according to city staff could be more desirable to buyers if the structure is removed, as it needs around $4 million in repairs.

The land’s assessed value is $1.5 million.

305 Chestnut Street is one of many surplus properties the city is planning to sell to help pay down its $68-million Skyline Center purchase debt.

The city bought the five-story and two-story structures, combined by a breezeway, in 1997 for $4.5 million from BB&T. Since 2013, according to property records, more than $800,000 had been paid toward renovations at 305 Chestnut St. to cover items like flooring, water heaters and HVAC.


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Shea Carver
Shea Carver
Shea Carver is the editor in chief at Port City Daily. A UNCW alumna, Shea worked in the print media business in Wilmington for 22 years before joining the PCD team in October 2020. She specializes in arts coverage — music, film, literature, theatre — the dining scene, and can often be tapped on where to go, what to do and who to see in Wilmington. When she isn’t hanging with her pup, Shadow Wolf, tending the garden or spinning vinyl, she’s attending concerts and live theater.

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