New Wilmington City Hall opens to public inside Skyline Center

New meeting rooms, service center, and council chambers

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The city of Wilmington cut the ribbon on its new city hall on Monday. 

Renovated over the course of 8 months, the former PPD building in downtown Wilmington—now called the Skyline Center—opened to the public on Monday.  

The city bought the 370,000 square foot office building from Thermo Fisher Scientific in 2023 for $68 million. 

It’s now home to 15 city departments, a new city services center, public meeting rooms, and city council chambers.  

Floors not used by the city are being leased to private businesses.  

Mayor Bill Saffo says the building makes city services more accessible and brings staff under one roof.  

“We were scattered all over our city, we were in 7 different buildings,” he said. “We felt that as the community has grown, that we needed a one place that we could take all of our services, consolidate all of our services, and bring them under one building.”  

Though the project hasn’t been without criticism—with many questioning whether the move was economically responsible.  

City leaders say it was cheaper than renovating existing properties.  

“We were talking about building new council chambers there at 305 (Chesnut Street), which was going to cost us somewhere between 90 to 100 million dollars and we said that was way too much money,” Saffo explained. “When this project came forward and this building became available, we said let’s take a shot at it, and we did.”  

Mayor Pro Tem Clifford Barnett adds the leased office space will help offset the building’s operating cost.  

“We didn’t have to increase taxes to do this. It’s literally paying for itself,” he said. 

Barnett says he sees the space as a beacon for Wilmington’s potential.  

“Not only is it the business that we’re doing today, but it’s what we’re doing for the future,” he said.