Construction hasn’t slowed for downtown Wilmington. To share updates on activity that’s happening and where projects stand, we talk this week with two of the players in the central business district, including WDI’s new leader.

The Panel:

Holly Childs
President and CEO of Wilmington Downtown Inc.

Holly Childs was named in December as the new head of WDI, a public-private group tasked with promoting economic development and growth in the downtown district. Childs, who started in the role at the beginning of the year, moved from Morgantown, West Virginia, where she worked with a commercial real estate company.

Lucien Ellison
Senior managing partner with East West Partners 

Lucien Ellison has worked in real estate in the region since 2005. He is the Wilmington partner for the development firm and project manager for River Place, a 13-story, mixed-use building being built downtown. East West also rehabbed a historical building to turn into recently opened coworking space.

With the recent closing of the sale of county-owned New Hanover Regional Medical Center to Novant Health, about $1.25 billion from the purchase goes to benefit New Hanover County. Overseeing that staggering amount is an endowment and board responsible for how the money is managed and where grants from interest earnings will go into the community.

The heads of that new endowment board of directors join us for this week’s BizTalk to answer questions about what happens next, what an endowment of this size means for the Cape Fear region and the latest on a push to diversify the board.

Click here to visit the New Hanover Community Endowment website

The long-awaited COVID-19 vaccine doses have begun rolling out in the region, but like throughout the country, the process hasn’t been without issues. Questions about supplies, allocations and meeting demand abound.

To help shed some light on how it's working locally and what to expect next, several health experts join us today on our relaunched weekly BizTalk program.

Watch the Facebook Live conversation by clicking here.

The panel:

David Howard
New Hanover County interim health director
David Howard recently stepped into the interim health director role for the county with the departure of Phillip Tate. Howard previously served as assistant health director. Like other county health departments, New Hanover is receiving weekly doses from the state and creating systems to distribute to qualifying people.

Cris Harrelson
Brunswick County health director
Cris Harrelson has served as director of Brunswick County Health Services since 2015. He also has worked for Bladen County and the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. Elected officials from Brunswick County in recent weeks have appealed to the state for more doses because of the county’s large senior population.

Jeff James
Wilmington Health CEO
Jeff James joined Wilmington Health in 2008. As chief executive officer, he is responsible for the strategic vision and direction of Wilmington Health. Wilmington Health began receiving vaccine doses in mid-January to administer to the public.

Claire Corbett
NHRMC’s director of clinical excellence
Claire Corbett has worked for New Hanover Regional Medical Center since 2003, including as head of NHRMC’s stroke program. NHRMC has been vaccinating patients and frontline staff. It recently started utilizing the still-closed movie theater at The Pointe at Barclay for community clinics.

WilmingtonBiz Talk is a weekly interview program on Facebook Live, which is rebroadcast on YouTube and numerous podcasting platforms. The Business Journal newsroom selects guests based on current events so our community can hear directly from newsmakers.