Wake Kicks in $650,000 for Gregg

Earlier this week the Wake County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to award $650,000 to NC State’s Gregg Museum of Art and Design to help the university pay for a major relocation, expansion and upgrade of the museum.

In 2010 the NC State Board of Trustees approved a plan to move the Gregg to the historic chancellor’s residence at 1903 Hillsborough Street and to augment the residence with a 15,000-square-foot contemporary addition. Overall cost of the project is currently pegged at $9.6 million. Museum leaders formed a campaign committee to raise $3.9 million of that amount from private donations, and with only about $80,000 left to go, the committee’s work is almost done.

Wake County’s grant — which will cover 6 percent of the project’s overall cost — will be applied to the $5.7 million of the cost not accounted for by private fundraising. Other sources of funds to defray that portion of the cost are $3 million in university bonds and debt serviced by student fees, $1.8 million in university discretionary funds not appropriated by the state and $250,000 from the city of Raleigh.

The university estimates that the county’s investment in the project will pay for itself within two years as the museum draws more visitors to the area, generating increased hotel and restaurant tax revenue.

Chancellor Randy Woodson will officiate at a groundbreaking ceremony for the new Gregg Museum at the historic chancellor’s residence on Tuesday, April 14, at 3 p.m.