The Northside Oasis of Wilmington (NOW), a local nonprofit, held a presentation Monday night to debut their plans for the development of a mega sportsplex directly behind the Wilmington Boys and Girls Club.
The development is the brainchild of NOW Founder and Concept Designer Tracy McCullen — a North Carolina native best known for raising money for the community by running marathons backwards. McCullen is also a professional designer for outdoor community spaces.
Zena Howard of the architectural firm Perkins & Will is the principal architect of Optimism Oasis. Howard’s portfolio includes the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC, and the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta.
The proposed sportsplex will include an Olympic swimming pool, a cultural arts center, a ninja obstacle course, a skateboard park, and athletic condos (which could be rented daily or monthly), just to name a few of the amenities.
Board Chair of NOW, Philip Brown said their mission is to promote unity.
“Tonight's our first real community meeting to introduce an idea. We really think the Optimism Oasis can bring something different to Wilmington and be an engine for reuniting the community,” he said.
This sparked questions from the audience about whether this was really aimed at helping the community and whether it would further the gentrification of the northside, as one resident (who did not state their name) pointed out.
“You talk a lot about community building and social and economic catalysts, but I haven't heard you talk about the other side of that, which is gentrification and displacement,” they said. “I see a lot in your presentation, like a boutique hotel and I saw online, athletic condos. So I'm just curious what your plan is to protect the community that you say you are serving with this development.”
Another resident, Donald Mckoy, said he was born and raised in the Northside and that he agrees with the intent behind the sportsplex, but he has seen developers shortchange the community time and time again.
“We understand what's going on right here. What we want to know, just like this lady said, is the community going to really be a part of it?” Mckoy said. “We just tired of people coming in saying they for the Northside, and then guess what? After one or two weeks (if that) it’s like we don't even exist.”
Some members of the audience asked board members how this could be an opportunity for the development of affordable housing units. To that, Brown said that the board would “have to be open to the possibilities.”
“Whether it's things like LIHTC tax credits that help make responsible development a more realistic possibility that would include affordable housing adjacent to or as part of the project. So that's a really complex thing,” he said. “We're (too) early into it to be able to really address those kinds of answers. Certainly, we need a lot of help.”
Others, like resident deAndré Corniffe, really hounded Brown on where the organization would be looking to for the funding of this project. While there's no working budget for the project, Brown and others have suggested the project could cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
Brown said that the funding for this project is left to be determined, but it will most likely come from a combination of philanthropic, private, and public donors, and they may eventually be asking the endowment for a potential investment.
Many in the audience stressed that if the community pitches in their money to have this complex built that they want to be sure that the history of the Black community in Wilmington would be commemorated and that leaders in the Black community would have a hand in this project in some way.
Michael Long, NOW board member and board chair of the Boys and Girls Club of Southeastern North Carolina, acted as moderator of Monday night’s forum. He told WHQR:
“I wouldn't be transparent if I sit here and I told you I could guarantee you that, because everything is ever evolving. We had a discussion about gentrification, right? And what was the first thing someone tied this project to? [Gentrification.] The people that are gentrifying that neighborhood are not in front of you. They're not hosting an event for people to come out and talk, and get input from. They're not. Now, you don't want to insult anybody by saying, I'm not your enemy. Every acre of land that we're talking about developing affects no housing, no housing whatsoever. That's a perfect place. Donated land by the Boys and Girls Club, potentially donated land by the school board. And I'll put this out, so they have Brownfield land, and if we get that land, we have to do something to make it safe enough to even build this. And on top of that, if you look at the development in and around the quote, unquote, Northside right now, that's something that's already in play. And so a premise of what we're saying [is if we] put an African American Museum, you put a mainstay. They can't take that. They can't change that.”
After a heated back-and-forth between Long and Corniffe on the issue of community-raised funds, Corniffe ended the debate by telling Long, “Yeah, you full of shit.”
However, the majority of the predominantly Black audience did not share the same view as Corniffe, and they saw this project as a silver lining.
Eddie Davis Sr., the President of Friends of Williston, a society dedicated to preserving the history of Williston Middle School (and not to be mistaken with The Friends of Williston Society), went out on a limb and said their organization would make a donation.
“Friends of Williston will make a donation to this project, hopefully that will create some funds that we can share, because we are interested in extending the history of the Black community,” Davis said.
One attendee, who only stated his first name Lorne, said this would be a shift in the right direction.
“I see someething different. The area really is obsolete. And you stuck in the past. It's over with. Let's go to the next generation, the next level. Now, they chose that area. I think it's an honor,” Lorne said.
Tim Merrick, a newly sworn-in member of the New Hanover County School Board (which owns a large portion of the land needed for the development) agreed that this would be a great opportunity for the area.
“People in the community worried about some white savior complex coming in to save the Northside, and is it really going to reflect what the Northside needs,” Merrick said. “But I'm not getting that from this group. I'm getting that this group really cares about what the community needs. In fact, it started based on what the community needs. I appreciate that they're listening.”
NOW board members said that the complex is only a concept for now, and once there is enough funding they will conduct traffic impact analysis studies to weigh how much of an impact this will have on residents' commutes.
Brown said they expect this project would take about six to eight years to complete if it moves forward.
