What they're saying along Castle Street about finally knocking down the old bus depot

While so much of Wilmington is developing at an eyewatering pace, what Castle Street neighbors call an eyesore is still festering in plain sight but not for long.

The former Castle Street bus facility will be demolished and the site will be sold as the city moves to formally divest from a property that has vexed city leaders for years.

The decision to sell the 1.5-acre lot at 1110 Castle St. comes after years of public debate about the site's future and several failed attempts at redevelopment. In April, the Wilmington City Council officially directed city staff to divest from the property.

The city has issued a request for proposals to remove asbestos from the site and demolish existing structures, including two 8,650-square-foot warehouse buildings, a fuel canopy and an above-ground fuel tank.

Proposals will be accepted until July 21, according to a city press release.

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The Wilmington City Council is also set to vote on authorizing the property's sale through a sealed bid process. That will allow the city to reject the highest bid if it's considered not satisfactory, according to the release.

Money from the sale will be used to fund affordable housing.

City leaders began their quest to develop the site in 2005 when they commissioned a re-use study of the property. From there, they determined a mixed-use development would be the best use of the site.

Two years later, the city council passed a resolution of intent to donate the land to the nonprofit Wilmington Southside Community Development entity, asking the group to demonstrate they had the capacity to re-develop the land.

WAVE Transit left the property in 2015.

Then in 2019, the city council declared the property to be surplus and approved a request for proposal for the redevelopment of the property. The request asked developers to include workforce or affordable housing in their project proposals.

Wilmington received one development proposal from Hipp Architecture in June 2019.

Over the next 15 months, city staff extended the project's pre-development phase multiple times to allow the architecture firm to explore adding more housing space, conduct additional environmental assessments and negotiate a potential purchase and development agreement.

In December 2021, Hipp Architecture withdrew its proposal from consideration, and in January the city of Wilmington withdrew its request for proposals for the site. The site's buildings saw damage in 2018 from Hurricane Florence and have since continued to deteriorate.

The lot has proved difficult to develop because of environmental issues, including the presence of lead, asbestos and mold on the site. The area is also considered a Brownfield because potential contamination from the above-ground fuel tank.

The neighborhood wants a say

As she stood near the entrance of Wanda Creative Hair Salon at the corner of S. 10th and Castle Streets, Verna Rigby said she wants to see the site redeveloped into a food bank. Rigsby, who lives in the neighborhood on S. Ninth Street, said a lot of older residents in the area need help accessing food.

If not a food bank, Rigby wants to see a safe space built for the neighborhood's kids and teens to hang out. But she said sometimes she feels like the neighborhood doesn't have a say in Castle Street's future when it comes to new development.

"We don't have a choice," she said. "Sometimes they just come in our neighborhoods and do what they want to do."

Rigby said she hopes the city or whoever purchases the property will hold community meetings to gauge public input on plans for the site.

The site's future is a common topic of conversation in the area.

At a home across the street from the former depot, a man who said he's lived in the neighborhood for more than 30 years sat on his front porch. He said he considered the site an "eyesore" in an up-in-coming part of town and that he wants to see stores built on the site to serve those living in the area.

On Queen Street, a block from the former bus depot, Evet Williams stood on the front porch, talking to her neighbors.

They reminisced about the site's history as they remembered catching the bus there decades ago. Williams said she thinks something that would have a positive impact on the community should be built, like a Salvation Army store.

"They should have done something a long time ago," she said.

Reporter Emma Dill can be reached at 910-343-2096 or edill@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Wilmington's bus depot on Castle Street to be demolished and sold