Years after Hurricane Florence, homes in Jervay are finally being demolished: Here's why

Nearly four years after damage from Hurricane Florence forced many Wilmington residents out of their public housing units, one building remains boarded up and fenced off.

Situated a block back from Dawson Street between Eighth and 10th Streets, a row of contemporary-looking housing units stand silent, ringed by a chain-linked fence with boarded-up windows.

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The strip of 18 apartments is sandwiched between Virgie Rhodes Lane and Elance Moore Lane and makes up just a sliver of the total number of public housing units encompassed by Wilmington's Jervay community.

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Maryland-based property management company the CT Group owns the Jervay, which is part of the Wilmington Housing Authority.

CT Group manages properties in six states and the District of Columbia.

StarNews requests to the Wilmington Housing Authority for a status update on the Jervay building were directed to CT Group regional manager Fred Killian.

Hurricane Florence hits public housing

On a recent morning, Jervay was quiet with front porches and a large grassy area unoccupied as clouds overhead threatened rain.

The scene looked much more menacing nearly four years ago when Hurricane Florence stalled over the Port City, dumping inches of rain and lashing winds across the entire region.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, those living in many of the Jervay community's units were forced from their homes as the public housing units closed to repair damage from the storm.

Other Port City public housing complexes felt the impacts of Hurricane Florence, too.

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In the weeks after the hurricane made landfall, more than 2,000 Wilmington residents living in public housing were displaced as their complexes, including Jervay, The Glen, Market North and the Cape Fear Hotel Apartments closed for repairs and renovations.

The hurricane "severely damaged" housing at the Jervay's primary site along Dawson Street and at the Jervay community on Covil Avenue, Killian said. 

A comprehensive renovation of the damaged units took place during 2019 and 2020, according to Killian, with the exception of building 811 -- the structure with 18 units that's visible from Dawson Street.

"This building ... had suffered such severe damage that it was not able to be renovated," Killian wrote in an emailed statement to the StarNews.

The building saw major water damage from the storm along with structural issues, Killian said. Ultimately, the management company estimated it would be more expensive to renovate and restore the building than to tear it down.

The structure will be razed during a comprehensive renovation planned for other Jervay units once the company completes a due diligence process for the site. 

"The underwriting and planning for the prospective renovation is currently in process," according to Killian. 

The boarded up structure held 18 housing units. Of those displaced from their homes when the building closed, 10 families have been rehoused in other units within other buildings that make up the wider Jervay community, and eight have moved permanently off-site, Killian wrote.

Killian was not able to offer a timeline for when the building would be taken down.

Constructed in 2003, the Jervay community was part of an effort to redevelop public housing along Dawson Street.

In 1996, the Wilmington Housing Authority received an $11.6 million HOPE VI grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to redevelop the former public housing complex on the site.

Reporter Emma Dill can be reached at 910-343-2096 or edill@gannett.com.