NEWS DIGEST

THE DIGEST

A ROUNDUP OF RECENT NEWS

FILE PHOTO BY MICHAEL CLINE SPENCER

ORGANIZATION GIVES UP ON WEST BANK PURCHASE

Officials with an organization that was aiming to raise $16 million to buy more than 80 acres on Eagles Island recently announced that they’ve terminated their contract to buy the property.

The Chapel Hill-based nonprofit Unique Places to Save announced the decision, explaining that it came after failing to secure a grant from the N.C. Land and Water Fund (NCLWF) to help buy the land.

A news release stated that Unique Places to Save was “counting on the state’s support to create the momentum needed to get private philanthropic donors to the table. Without NCLWF’s support and no other viable state or federal grants for land acquisition, the project has gone cold and there appears to be no major donors who are interested in preserving the land and therefore no viable path forward.”

Diamondback Development owns the property, where a hotel and spa has been planned by developer Bobby Ginn.

Jay Shott, co-owner of Diamondback Development, said in a previous Greater Wilmington Business Journal story that the $16 million purchase price was far lower than the $25 million the total acreage has appraised for.

“We have all the permits necessary to move forward with the development,” Shott said in July. “If they aren’t able to do it, if the community doesn’t get behind it, then that lets us know that the community wants to see it developed.”

The proposed purchase price represented the amount Diamondback Development was prepared to seek from Ginn, said Jeff Fisher, chair of Unique Places to Save, in July.

A streak of increased sales in the luxury home market came to an end in October, but not by much.

For the first time in more than two years, sales of homes priced at $1 million or more in New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender counties decreased year over year, falling from 53 sold in October 2021 to 50 in October 2022.

The combined value in October this year fell to $78.4 million from October 2021’s total of $90.5 million, according to a report compiled by Wilmington-based Just For Buyers Realty.

“It almost seems a little unfair because last month was the second-best October ever recorded,” said Scott Saxton, of Just for Buyers Realty, in a news release. “And if you were to look at those numbers, they’re impressive. But when you view them in the context of this record-breaking streak, where month after month we witnessed gains in the luxury housing market, and now we see this dip, it says to me that if we’re not seeing a slowdown, at least we are seeing a calming down.”

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LUXURY HOME SALES STREAK FALTERS

$15 million

AMOUNT MUNGO HOMES PAID FOR 242 ACRES OFF U.S. 17 NEXT TO POPLAR GROVE PLANTATION