Longtime art and studio complex in downtown Wilmington is for sale
Longtime art and studio complex in downtown Wilmington is for sale
John Staton, Wilmington StarNewsTue, May 5, 2026 at 2:39 PM UTC
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A Wilmington visual arts institution that's been downtown for more than three decades is for sale.
Acme Art Studios at 711 N. Fifth Ave. — a one-acre complex that stretches between North Fifth Avenue and North Fourth Street and includes a 12,000-square-foot warehouse with studio and gallery space, along with four vacant lots — was recently listed on the website of Wilmington's Intracoastal Realty for $4.4 million.
Formerly a carpet warehouse, a collective of a half-dozen Wilmington artists helped turn Acme into art studios in 1991, back when real estate values in the Northside neighborhood it inhabits were at rock bottom.
As the surrounding area has evolved into the high-traffic Brooklyn Arts District over the past 35 years, Acme has rented studio space to dozens of artists and hosted countless art shows, in the process becoming one of Wilmington's most important and influential art hubs.
"I've had moments of worry and fretting about it," said Wilmington artist and retired University of North Carolina Wilmington art professor Pam Toll, one of the property's five owners and a co-founder of Acme Art. "But I feel pretty good about (selling)."
The building's other four owners are artists Carol Collier (who moved away from Wilmington about 20 years ago), Marshall Milton, Jan Rhyne and Dick Roberts.
Asked why Acme's owners chose to put the complex on the market, Toll declined to go into detail.
"It is the right time (to sell) for a number of reasons," she said, adding that, "Like most decisions we made over the years the vote was unanimous."
The Acme Art Studios complex at 711 N. Fifth Ave. in downtown Wilmington is on the market for $4.4 million.
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According to the Intracoastal Realty listing, "The property is ideally suited for infill redevelopment consistent with the city's vision for higher-density, walkable, mixed-use environments. Surrounded by ongoing revitalization, local businesses and cultural venues, this site offers strong potential for residential, live/work or mixed-use development in one of downtown's fastest-growing districts."
Toll said the ideal buyer will keep Acme as an arts center with studios.
"We're hoping to stay here, but we might have to move somewhere else," she said. "If we can figure out a way to stay we will, but I don't know if we're going to be able to do that."
Toll said that all options are on the table, adding that it's likely there will be "more buildings, some parking, maybe even a few places for people to live."
Artist Pam Toll works on a piece in her studio space at Acme Art in Wilmington, N.C., July 31, 2014.
Toll said Acme is currently renting to about 20 artists whose leases are good through November. Art shows are scheduled there through the end of 2026.
Some Acme artists, Toll said, including herself and longtime Wilmington artist Dumay Gorham, are actively looking for new studio spaces where they could work together.
"Kind of like we did in the beginning," Toll said.
Gorham said the dozen or so artists scouting new spaces both in and outside of Wilmington are holding out hope that a "unicorn" of a new landlord will keep things somewhat intact even if new buildings spring up around Acme.
"It's still a very fluid situation that's evolving daily," he said. "Ideally we would like to keep the core group together and keep Acme's identity, even if it means moving someplace else."
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Finding a suitable space in Wilmington that's also affordable has proved challenging, Gorham said.
"We've been spoiled," he said. "I couldn't rent a storage unit for what I pay here. They've raised my rent once in 25 years."
Wilmington sculptor Dumay Gorham outside his Acme Arts Studio, mid-200s.
When Acme was founded in 1991, North Fifth Avenue was not the desirable neighborhood it is now. The Thelma Bull Bridge didn't exist yet, so the arts warehouse was literally on a dead-end street.
New Hanover County property records show the Acme complex was purchased from Charles Wholesale Rugs in 1992 for $100,000.
"It wasn't conceived as a commercial business venture," Acme co-founder Dick Roberts told the StarNews in 2012. "It was something that happened out of the love of art. And we wanted a place to work."
At the time, the neighborhood "had gone to seed," Roberts said. "There were crack houses. Prostitutes up and down the street. At one point the neighborhood kids were burning houses down."
By the mid-1990s, however, Acme was well-established as a local arts hub.
According to a 2012 StarNews story for Acme's 20th anniversary, the idea of Acme began in 1990, when its founders would gather at the late Rick Mobbs' former studio on Castle Street, gatherings that led to art shows and art festivals.
Officially founded by Roberts, Toll, Milton, Collier, Mobbs, John Peckham and Wayne Upchurch in 1991, Acme's community of artists has proved to be among the most influential in Wilmington.
The idea for the annual No Boundaries International Art Colony on Bald Head Island, which brings national and international artists to Wilmington, was born at Acme.
Gorham designed and built his iconic "Soaring to Greatness" sculpture of UNCW's Seahawk mascot in his Acme studio. One of the most recognizable public art works in Wilmington, it's been on display on UNCW's campus since 2009.
Gorham called Acme a "hub of creativity (that) helped shaped the visual arts scene in Wilmington," noting that many Acme artists have taught at such places as DREAMS Center for Arts Education, Kids Making It, the Cameron Art Museum's Museum School and elsewhere.
The Acme Art Studios complex at 711 N. Fifth Ave. in downtown Wilmington is on the market for $4.4 million.
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"Acme is the reason there is a (Brooklyn) Arts District," Gorham said. "The community benefits from having us here more than it will having apartments. My heart breaks when I think about driving past here and seeing apartments go up. … In every respect for me it's like losing a home."
Part of Acme's appeal to artists has long been the proximity to other working artists to be inspired by or collaborate with. That, Toll said, could happen elsewhere.
"It's not about the walls, it's about the community," she said.
But even if a "new" Acme pops up someplace else — assuming it leaves its current location — losing it would leave a hole in Wilmington's art community.
"It’s one of if not the oldest gallery and working studio complex in the area (and) has ties to most other educational, creative and arts-centric entities in Wilmington," Gorham said. "It’s so much more than just 'Acme Art Studios.'"
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Acme Art Studios in Wilmington, NC, is for sale
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