Agreement over land pushes Northside grocery store closer to reality

New Hanover County and the city of Wilmington reached an agreement for the land's future that will be home to the Northside Food Co-op, but not without some pushback.

Northside Food Co-op aims to address food insecurity by building a community grocery store in the Northside of Wilmington as the area is considered a food desert as defined by the US Department of Agriculture.

The county will provide over $2 million, and the New Hanover County Community Endowment will provide nearly $7 million to the project.

The land is at 10th and Post streets and was donated by the city with a provision that it must be operated as a grocery store and the county will own the building.

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The issue was concern on the county’s end over what will happen to the property if the store isn’t successful.

“I know we all want it to succeed and wish for the best and hope that it does, but I always like to prepare for the worst,” county Vice Chairwoman LeAnn Pierce said at a recent meeting. “And if we build a $9 million building on that piece of land, we don’t own it, I’m concerned about that.”

While county commissioners feel confident that the community would benefit from the store, they wanted to outline an agreement with the city that addresses what will happen to the property if the county ends up using the building for something other than a grocery store.

County Manager Chris Coudriet and City manager Tony Caudle worked together to reach a proposed agreement between the county and the city.

Coudriet said that if in the future the county decides that they want to use the property for another use, then the county would get the land appraised and then give the amount of money that the land is valued at to the city to maintain complete ownership of the parcel.

“To me that’s a win-win,” County Commissioner Jonathan Barfield Jr. said.

If the county and city can’t reach an agreement on the appraiser, they would each pick their own appraiser and have the land appraised by each. Then, the average of both appraisals would be the land’s value.

If the two appraisals differ by 15%, then the appraisers would select another appraiser to offer a third appraisal that would be final.

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The county commissioners were unanimously in support of the agreement, and all but one city council member supported it.

“If the intent is to build a grocery store, why is this even an issue," said city council member Kevin Spears. “Does someone not want to build a grocery store?”

Spears clarified that he wants to see the Northside Food Co-op go on the Northside of the city, but that he was not on board with the proposed agreement.

“We made a deal, you agreed to the deal,” Spears said.

Council member David Joyner said he agreed with Spears, but wanted to make sure that the grocery store becomes a reality.

“Too many people have worked for too long and for too hard on a problem that has existed for too long,” Joyner said.

The acceptance of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Northside Food Co-op and the county, which the county approved March 18, and the release of the reversion clause will allow the county to move toward hiring an architect to start the design for the grocery store.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Northside grocery store in Wilmington, NC, closer to design phase