The new Salvation Army campus on Wilmington’s Riverfront will be dedicated Saturday.
The new campus is on South Walnut Street - not far from its old home on South Market and right up the street from the Chase Fieldhouse.
“It’s a beautiful location, across from the (Christina) River where it’s a little more accessible to foot traffic - as well as bus lines,” said Major Morris McCullough - the administrator of the Salvation Army’s Adult Rehabilitation Center. “And we brought it up here, where we’re able to provide new facilities for our beneficiaries. And the new center is about 40,000-square-feet for the residents there. We host about 65 residents - 58 men and 10 women.”
McCullough says unlike their old location, the new center offers a family visitation area, as well as a fitness center and a computer lab.
He hopes residents use the computer lab to search for jobs or research.
McCullough adds that the campus also offers plenty of outdoor, recreational space for residents.
“We’ve really upgraded the whole campus to make it more user-friendly for everyone," McCullough said. "Twenty-five years ago we did one thing one way, now it’s a whole different way - we need to upgrade our facilities to make it better and more usable for everyone; even our warehouse and retail space (has been upgraded). Our retail space is now 17,000-square-feet and it is all on one level.”
McCullough says the old retail space had multiple levels and was extremely difficult to navigate if you were handicapped. He notes the new retail space also has public restrooms.
McCullough says this expansion was paid for by the Riverfront Development Corporation (RDC). The Salvation Army did a property exchange with them to make the new campus possible.
