Nearly five years after the original building was closed due to damage from Hurricane Florence, construction of a new Stanley White Recreation Center will officially kick off next week.
A groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for Friday, August 4 at 11 a.m. at the construction site on 3rd Avenue across from the City of New Bern Fire Department. The event is open to the public and a light lunch will be provided after the ceremony.
The design for the new rec center calls for a two-story, 35,000 sq. foot building to be located on property purchased by the city between Gaston Boulevard and 3rd Avenue. The plan features two gymnasiums, offices and multi-purpose spaces on the ground level, along with an elevated walking track and a fitness and weight room on the second floor.
In May, the New Bern Board of Aldermen authorized a $13.1 million contract with T.A. Loving, a Goldsboro-based construction contractor, for the Stanley White Recreation project.
The contract indicates the building is to be completed 15 months from the date of commencement of work, which would put construction ending sometime in October of 2024.
To date, the City of New Bern has secured $8 million in insurance money and financial commitments from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for the new Stanley White Recreation Center. The city is currently seeking an additional $6.3 million that will be necessary to complete the project and is working with Davenport & Co., a financial advisory firm headquartered in Richmond, Va., to discuss the city borrowing the additional funds.
According to Ted Cole, senior vice president and manager of public finance with Davenport & Co., one option would be for the city to secure a long-term $6.5 million loan to cover the funds needed to complete construction and an additional $3.5 million that would allow the city to have money on hand while it waits on the FEMA funds.
The city has developed Requests for Proposals that Davenport & Co. will be submitting on the city’s behalf “to a wide range of lenders,” Cole said.
A public hearing on the Stanley White Recreation financing has been set for August 8 at the board’s regularly scheduled meeting.
Final board approval is scheduled for August 22, when Davenport & Co. will submit the proposals they received from banks and give their recommendations.
Once aldermen make a decision on which bank they will use, an application for approval must be submitted to the NC Local Government Commission in Raleigh, which will take up the matter at their September 12 meeting.
If the application is approved, Cole said the city should be able to close on the loans by the end of September.
In May, the board submitted an application for a $950,000 Rural Transformation Grant originally intended for a planned Pepsi Museum to help with funding for the rec center construction. The city was not selected for the grant, which was awarded in June.
By Todd Wetherington, co-editor. Send an email with questions or comments.