New Hanover County leaders will consider amending the county’s development agreement for Project Grace on Monday.

The amendment would shift work and costs related to managing the "installation of museum exhibit infrastructure and oversight of exhibit installation" from the county to developer Cape Fear Development Partners LLC (CFD), according to agenda documents from Monday's New Hanover County Board of Commissioners meeting, which starts at 4 p.m. The board is also set to consider increasing the project's guaranteed maximum price by approximately $5.4 million.

Project Grace is the ongoing redevelopment of New Hanover County’s downtown library branch and the Cape Fear Museum. The project broke ground in February 2024 on a county-owned block bounded by Chestnut, Grace, North Second and North Third streets in downtown Wilmington.

In May 2023, New Hanover County and CFD entered an initial development agreement for the project, which included a guaranteed maximum price of $60.5 million. A few months later, the agreement was amended to include a guaranteed maximum price of $55.9 million, a reduction of approximately $4.6 million due to value engineering efforts. 

The second proposed amendment, to be considered Monday afternoon, would include an increase in guaranteed maximum price of $5.4 million “associated with the expanded scope of work” by the developer, according to agenda documents. With that increase, the project's total budget could be up to $61.3 million.

“Staff working with CFD, have determined that it is in the best interest of the project to shift work and costs from county responsibility into CFD' s scope of work, which would include management of the installation of museum exhibit infrastructure and oversight of exhibit installation,” agenda documents state. “This is primarily because the exhibit installation logistics must work seamlessly with the building construction to ensure the best result. Overall, time and cost savings will be realized for the project due to this increase in scope of work for the development and construction team. ”

The increase would be funded through an existing $21.5 million Direct Costs Budget for Project Grace, which includes funding for museum exhibits along with furniture, fixtures and equipment for the library and museum.

The agreement amendment also proposes adjusting the project development to nearly $184,000, according to agenda documents.

If construction stays on schedule, officials with contractor Monteith Construction have said the completed library side of the structure is expected to be turned over to New Hanover County in August. The library is expected to be operational by late 2025, and, around the same time, Monteith expects to wrap up its work on the Cape Fear Museum portion, which is expected to open in mid-2026.