New Possibilities for W.C. Reid Center Building

With the up and coming Livingston Center, the W. C. Reid Center Building in Asheville’s Southside Community has great potential.  Photo: Urban News

by Johnnie Grant

As the City of Asheville forges ahead with plans to build a new Livingston Street center, the question remains: What to do with the existing W. C. Reid Center?

Reid Center (originally the Livingston Street School), owned by the City of Asheville and operated by Asheville Parks and Recreation, has been in need of repair for many years. Current appraisals value the building (unoccupied) at $250,000, far less than the cost of rehabilitating the site and its adjacent properties. The recent “Raise the Roof Campaign” did not generate sufficient funds to rehabilitate the Center and bring it up to code.

As a result, new ideas are under consideration as to how to save the
neighborhood institution and reimagine the building as a viable,
sustainable facility. For much of the past month, the City has held
meetings with community members and nonprofit organizations to determine
how the Reid Center can be saved and used.

David Nash, Assistant Director of the Housing Authority of the
City of Ashville, presented City Council with a set of recommendations
including applying for a federal grant of approximately $5 million to
purchase and renovate the building, while bringing the facility up to
code. The proposed grant from the Housing & Urban Development
Department (HUD) would be contingent on the city’s providing an
additional 5 percent in matching funds, which the Housing Authority
would try to secure from another agency. Asheville Mayor Terry Bellamy
suggested the possibility of a sustainability grant from the City of
Asheville to fulfill that condition.

Organizations that currently occupy the larger site are Community
Action Opportunities (Lonnie Burton Center); Partners Unlimited, and
Green Opportunities, while Parks & Recreation activities occur
within the Reid Center itself. The Empowerment Resource Center and
Housing Maintenance Management have expressed interest in being one of
the building’s future occupants, as has A-B Tech. All the entities
expressed an interest in bringing on-board self-sufficiency enrichment
and educational programs that will allow the immediate community, and
citizens of the greater Asheville area, to have easy access to needed
opportunities.

The Housing Authority will continue to move forward with securing these grants with the community’s input.