UNPRECEDENTED activity from one end of the spec-trum
to the other defined real estate sales in downtown
Wilmington in 2021.
Two of the city’s most iconic historic properties were
sold, both closing at or near $2 million.
The Dudley Mansion at 400 S. Front Street, built in 1825 and the
residence of Edward B. Dudley, North Carolina’s first governor, sold
for $2 million in April.
“It was an out-of-state buyer with ties to the state who wanted
to get back,” says Ashley B. Garner of the Intracoastal team, who
represented both the seller and buyer. “The seller was passionate
about the house and did a lot of research and restoration, compiling
the history into a book. It was fun to learn the history. It was a once-in-
a-career type transaction.”
The 15,100 square foot, 12-bedroom Graystone Inn Bed and
Breakfast at 100 S. 3rd Street, built between 1905 and 1906, sold in
June for $1.925 million.
Both the Graystone Inn and the Dudley Mansion took some time
to sell, typical for grand-scale historic properties.
“It takes the right buyer,” Garner says. “We are not competing
with homes in Landfall. We are competing with other historic homes
in places like Savannah, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina.”
Selling in less than a week or two and driving up sales in nearly
every district of downtown were new and newly remodeled homes
and condos/lofts in the $200,000 to $400,000 range.
New home communities such as Riverside at 432 Tributary Circle
and Hanover Lakes at 287 Hanover Lakes Drive, located along the
perimeter of downtown in the Wrightsboro area, offer new construc-tion
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starting in the $300,000s. Many 2021 sales came from these
two communities.
In the Brooklyn Arts district, the former Independent Ice House
building at 614 Peacock Lane, built in the early 1900s, was rezoned,
restored and repurposed into six multi-family lofts called Indie Ice
House Lofts by Dave Nathans of Urban Building Corp.
“I’ve owned property in that vicinity for many years and that
building has always intrigued me,” Nathans says.
All six lofts sold in less than a month, including two that were on
the market for less than two days.
Todd Toconis of Town & Country Real Estate listed the proper-ties.
“There’s a huge influx of people moving into the area from other
states such as New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania,
Ohio,” says Toconis.
Infill projects like the Indie Ice House Lofts in niche areas of
DOWNTOWN WILMINGTON By Amanda Lisk
INTRACOASTAL REALTY CORPORATION