57 The goal of the Harrelson Center is to become a place to help people in the community who are working very hard to help themselves, but they just can’t make ends meet. “We’re trying to be that center to help people get connected to the resources they need,” she says. www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com WBM plunked down in the center of Wilmington. After a one million dollar contribution from Wilmington developer Bobby Harrelson, the adjacent First Baptist Church purchased the building from New Hanover County in 2005 and began renovating the building. The center, which opened in September 2009, was rechristened the Jo Ann Carter Harrelson Center, for Harrelson’s late wife. A small portion of the 66,868 square-foot building has been renovated for office space and meeting rooms for ten nonprofit organizations, which pay below market rates. Renovations to the fourth floor are on the drawing board for 2014. The upper floors that once housed the men’s and women’s jail cells need total renovation. The demolition stage alone is estimated to cost several hundred thousand dollars, says Harrelson Center director Vicki Dull, who leads an informal tour of the vacant spaces. Entering the fourth floor, a placard beside the steel door still bears former Sheriff Sid Causey’s name. Stepping around piles of debris and dodging hanging wires on the fourth and fifth floors, Dull says the plan is to demolish the inner walls of former prisoner shower areas and cells because they are not load bearing walls, clearing the space to offer more Harrelson Center director Vicki Dull moved tables where inmates once dined to the outside courtyard.
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