CAROLINA BEACH — A 1.13-acre property close to town hall will fulfill a yearslong desire to expand municipal facilities and services.
Carolina Beach town officials announced Tuesday it had reached an agreement to purchase properties at 608 Glenn Avenue, 1301 and 1307 Bridge Barrier Road for $935,000, to be taken out of the town’s reserves from the utility fund. The deal will close officially on September 1 of this year.
According to New Hanover County property records, Indic Group Holdings LLC purchased the properties for $700,000 in January 2021.
READ MORE: Carolina Beach Boardwalk properties decreased by $3M in town settlement
It will be the town’s second property purchase this year, as it plans to close in September on a $12-million buy for nine Boardwalk properties.
The town wanted to purchase Barrier Bridge Road to add to Carolina Beach’s municipal complex; town hall, the police department and recreation center are located around 0.3 miles from Barrier Bridge Road.
According to Mayor Lynn Barbee, the land has been needed since the operations facility the town used was once located on U.S. Army’s Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point property, one of the largest military ammunition terminals in the world. The Army reclaimed its land the building was on in the mid-’90s disallowing public use; this left the town with a “space deficit,” Barbee wrote in his July 21 mayoral report.
Barbee told Port City Daily the Bridge Barrier Road property will be used to host a facility for operations and maintenance staff, as well as large equipment. The property currently includes a building, previously inhabiting a golf cart company. Town Manager Bruce Oakley said the town will refurbish the building and add additional facilities on the property.
“The thinking here, long-range, is when we redevelop the main campus, we would keep the public safety center and town administration,” Barbee said, noting maintenance and operations staff would be the inhabitants of the new facility. “We need to move the operations group off of that campus for a bunch of reasons.”
The facilities and maintenance crew currently do not have their own space, nor proper storage for large equipment, like septic trucks.
Part of the reason the town purchased the acreage is to also expand its recreation facility adjacent to town hall on Lake Park Boulevard; operations and maintenance equipment are on the site currently. Once the equipment moves to the new property, the town will be able to expand the rec center. It could host a volleyball or pickleball court, though Oakley said plans were still in preliminary stages.
It will take years before the project to expand the town’s facilities would come to fruition, with the rec center changes “well over a year out,” according to Oakley.
Landscaping and fencing will be installed first, expected in six months. Maintenance equipment may start being stored on Bridge Barrier Road shortly thereafter, according to Oakley.
The town then could properly begin discussing the design and layout of the new building.
A cost estimate is not currently known for the overall project, according to the town manager
“I couldn’t really give even a ballpark,” Oakley said.
As for where the money would come from, Oakley added the town would likely dip into reserve funds, particularly for the design stages, and then explore other options, though he did not have more details.
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