The demolition has now begun on the old Windsor Recreation Center building, making way for something designed to be much, much better.
The heavy equipment has started rolling and, once the old center is demolished, built in its place will be the Taj Mahal of community centers – the coming new Windsor Chavis Nocho Community Complex. That new facility at 1601 E. Gate City Blvd. is going to offer much more than a traditional community center, so much so that it should be thought of as a completely different animal.
The complex is meant to be a beacon of light in East Greensboro, where people will come to do everything from playing sports, to seeing plays, to signing up for city and county services, to learning about all aspects of healthy living.
There’s a lot of excitement around the project, so city leaders are happy to see the aging Windsor Recreation Center begin to come down.
This week, demolition crews are annihilating the low-roof portion of the building.
The old gym is scheduled to come down next.
With a planned opening in 2027, the new Windsor Chavis Nocho Community Complex is meant to, according to city leaders, “seamlessly combine the facilities and resources of a library, recreation center and park into a transformative hub of services for the surrounding neighborhoods.” The complex’s community-based program design is meant to serve as “a catalyst for new economic development and a model for collaborative delivery of community support including lifelong learning, recreation, healthy living and other vital services.”
One major goal of the coming Community Complex is to “promote a positive change for East Greensboro and the entire City.”
This project is being funded by the City of Greensboro, Guilford County government, Cone Health, the Public Art Endowment, and Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership.
In July of last year, Cone Health announced it was handing over $5 million in funding for the project that many city residents have very high expectations for.
City leaders say the giant public-private partnership represents a new approach to public services delivery – one that recognizes the need for a place such as this to be located in the community it serves so it will be easily accessible.
Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan said last summer that the Windsor Chavis Nocho Community Complex “truly is a one-of-a-kind multi-functional space” and that it will offer a vision into the future as to how to improve the city’s effort to meet the needs of the entire Greensboro community through a centralized hub.
According to a press release put out when Cone announced its funding last July, the City of Greensboro and its partners are dedicated to ensuring that this turns out to be a “transformational” project that will “create opportunities for health and wellness equity through a variety of services and educational program opportunities.”
The people who are currently served by the Windsor Recreation Center, Vance Chavis Library and Nocho Park have, according to city officials, experienced a serious lack of access to necessary services over the years – and this complex is meant to help those in the surrounding area finally get easier access to those services.
Greensboro Public Libraries and Greensboro Parks and Recreation wanted, therefore, to create this as a centralized hub for that community and for it to be one that offers services in a new way.
Rather than being a library – “a place where you simply check out a book” – the new facility will be a community gathering center that offers visitors maker spaces, lounges to write, work or study in – and various spaces geared toward different age groups.
It won’t just have basketball courts and swimming pools; it will also include other sports facilities and an aquatic center with lots of water-based amenities. The complex will have a “lazy river, water slide,” lap pool, teaching kitchen, gymnasium, walking track, weight room, fitness room, sensory space, dedicated spaces for children, teens, and seniors, and both indoor and outdoor flexible programming rooms and spaces.
Likewise, the connected park won’t just offer a traditional playground and ballpark – instead, it will feature “universal play spaces,” outdoor gym facilities and “a place to celebrate the significant history of a community.”
In addition, the 65,000-square-foot complex will encourage living practices that promote health, wellness and social interaction – and will offer access to both city and county services.
Guilford County divisions such as public health, social services, and the Cooperative Extension will have a presence. Eligibility services, including Medicaid, will be offered as well as Food and Nutrition, and Women, Infants, and Children Services.
Classes centered on wellness, exercise, health and nutrition will also be provided.
The project will include a full-size covered basketball pavilion, an amphitheater and a “relaxation area.”
The site will also feature multiple community gathering spaces with Bosque seating, picnic tables, bench seating and a shade structure with imaginative lighting throughout.
This new facility should be one of the nicest and most complete gathering areas in Greensboro once it opens in two years.
Guilford County government, the City of Greensboro and Cone Health have all been criticized at various times over the years for not providing adequate services to the less affluent sections of Greensboro and Guilford County.
This project is in part meant to help address those criticisms.
In 2012, Guilford County attempted to meet the need for more medical care in east Greensboro by opening the Evans-Blount Medical Clinic at 2031 Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. in Greensboro – however, that facility closed in 2022 after a decade of service to the community.
The Windsor Chavis Nocho Community Complex, while not a health clinic, will be largely wellness-oriented – a proactive health facility offering residents a place where they can improve their mental and physical health through positive wellness practices.
In addition, the complex will encourage lifelong learning as well as more social interaction among users.
Wow.
Wasn’t somebody here just complaining about how little public money is spent in Southeast Greensboro…?
Scott,
Given past projects such as this, I am taking a slightly skeptical wait and see position on this project. It sounds too pie-in-the-sky good.
Let’s not forget that a large part of the funding for this project was provided by the taxpayers of Greensboro and Guilford county in addition to Cone and the others.
Thank you Peter for a very concise comment
I remember when Carolina Circle Mall was being built. It was going to be a wonderful place built with similar funding, with the addition of Federal money. It opened with great fanfare. Ribbon cutting and turning over shovels full of dirt. It gradually lost the anchor stores because more merchandise was stolen than was sold. Similar to every grocery store and restaurant. Where else does a fast food restaurant have to hire TWO off duty LEO’s?
* Funny you say that, Bill. This week I stopped at the Wal-Mart where the Carolina Circle Mall used to be, wanting to buy a small hand tool. They were all locked up behind glass ! I’ve never seen this at any other Wal-Mart, just the one in Northeast Greensboro.
Gee, I wonder what the problem is…..
Windsor Chavis Nocho Community Complex will eventually become like the old Windsor Center being replaced; rundown with theft taking place in the parking lot. The Center will serve only the surrounding area just as Windsor Center did. Cone Hospital gave a large donation the real reason which we do not know but most likely due to pressure from Skip Alston and other Commissioners, Greensboro City Council and especially from Deena Hayes-Greene. Hayes-Greene who lives nearby probably views the Center as a benefit to the students living in the area by improving student scores. She is totally wrong. The Center will become a burden to all property taxpayers in Guilford County.
A large home improvement store on Cone Blvd experienced so much theft that they have resorted to additional measures to prevent thievery. And many on the City Council, County Commissioners, and others complain about the lack of stores in certain neighborhoods.
* TERMLIMITS, I remember watching a WFMY TV report when the Winn-Dixie on Phillips Avenue announced it was closing the doors. The reporter was a new face, and had obviously not learned what could be said and what could not be said. He recounted that Winn-Dixie stated it had to close that particular store because of unusually high theft and bad checks (this was about 30 years ago).
That reporter was never seen on WFMY again.
wasn’t it a bi-rite ? after it failed the city plowed more $$ into it until IT FAILED for TOP SECRET reasons !
No, I’m referring to the old Winn-Dixie on Phillips Avenue. They announced they were closing it in 1998.
There was indeed a small scale grocery store years later that was organized socialist style, as a co-operative venture. It flopped very quickly.
it was shoplifted & embezzled out of taxpayer funded existence
3 to 5 years and another dump in Greensboro. Your taxes at work.
All our tax dollars seem to go to the East-side of Greensboro, when will council build a similar project on the west-side, north-side or south side of town. Please correct me, is the tax base higher on the West-side than anywhere else in the city?
We need stronger representation in these areas by our council members who are suppose to represent their constituents? Remember WE the people, your constituents are the ones who elect, re-elect or not re-elect you.
This place sounds large enough to move all the homeless from downtown and from the IRC to this huge facility that can meet all their needs.
Think the west side would get something like this? Not a chance. We have one, ONE rec center…the old Leonard Rec Center. Will we ever get one like this…Absolutely Not. Most City Council members think everyone over here has a Country Club membership…..oh how they forget…we aren’t Lake Jeanette, Starmount, Irving Park. We are the struggling middle income folks everyone just thinks are rich since we live out this way……even though we bought our homes before Greensboro was even out here. We are largely struggling middle class that no one actually thinks live here. We struggle week to week. We are all colors, all ages, but because we live in the west it is assumed we are rich whites……. Come walk my neighborhood Sharon Hightower!
TLDR