CAROLINA BEACH — It’s the largest financial acquisition in the history of a small beach town in the southern portion of New Hanover County.
READ MORE: NHC transfers ownership of parcel related to ongoing Carolina Beach lawsuit
ALSO: CB seeks agreement with amusement park landowner to bring back Ferris wheel
On Tuesday, Carolina Beach Town Council voted unanimously to settle an ongoing lawsuit by agreeing to purchase nine parcels surrounding the Carolina Beach Boardwalk for $15 million.
The properties are currently owned by Carolina Beach Land Holdings LLC. Cumulatively valued according to New Hanover County property records at $3.45 million, they include:
- 100 Canal Drive
- 8 Cape Fear Blvd.
- 3 Boardwalk
- 1 Carolina Beach Ave.
- 5 Carolina Beach Ave.
- 7 Carolina Beach Ave.
- 9 Carolina Beach Ave.
- 101 Cape Fear Blvd.
- 1 Cape Fear Blvd.
The nine properties have been used for the town’s seasonal amusement park.
Carolina Beach Land Holdings LLC, owned by Ken Cofer and Matt Murphy, has been in litigation with the Town of Carolina Beach for more than a year over a public sidewalk easement, located next to the Ferris wheel. The LLC requested the court deem the easement as part of the company’s land.
New Hanover County also had a 42.7% share of a 0.02-acre parcel when Carolina Beach Land Holdings LLC filed the complaint. New Hanover County conveyed the land at no cost to the Town of Carolina Beach in February last year, to avoid becoming a named party in the lawsuit.
Even during litigation — and as tourism season kicked off at the beginning of June 2024 — Carolina Beach Land Holdings LLC had been issued violations for its 1, 3, 5 Carolina Beach Ave. S and 3 Boardwalk properties. The town found the amusement park — run by Hildebrand Amusements — lacked a proper site plan turned over to Carolina Beach officials, encroached on the town’s right-of-way, and damaged the sidewalk. Murphy wrote to staff he had remedied encroachments and would work to repair concrete sidewalk infractions when the rides were removed in the offseason.
“We will fence off the properties to eliminate this in the future,” Murphy wrote to CB staff last year.
Mayor Lynn Barbee announced in a special council meeting Tuesday that the two parties entered a mediated settled agreement on Jan. 24 and thanked Cofer and Murphy for working with the town on the deal. The $15-million purchase will have to gain approval from the Local Government Commission, which oversees fiscal management of governments and municipalities statewide. It’s also conditional in that, if the appraisal doesn’t come in at $15 million, Carolina Beach Land Holdings LLC can cancel the sale.
“Most property in New Hanover County has a market evaluation significantly above its tax evaluation,” Barbee wrote to Port City Daily in an email on Tuesday when questioned about the county’s $3.5 million evaluation. “I’m not qualified to appraise property, but in talking to some commercial agents, this seems in line with the market. … The owner had over $5M invested in this property and had held most of it for over 20 years. Given land values over that period, $15M seemed appropriate.”
The town must secure title insurance for $15 million ahead of closing and the LLC can use the town’s property for business operations until the deal is finalized. The sale is slated to close by the end of 2025.
The parties also agree to stay the lawsuit until the acquisition closes and thereafter will move to dismiss all claims and counterclaims filed in the lawsuit.
“This will not affect this budget or the next budget,” council member Mike Hoffer said during Tuesday’s special meeting, noting the town leaders had mechanisms in place to pay for it.
Barbee told PCD the town is looking at a multitude of ways to carry the costs, including parking revenue, reserve funds and potentially room occupancy tax reserves.
“The remainder may be via bond issuance or bank financing, depending on which has the better cost structure,” he said. “We will also seek grants as programs are available. The goal, of course, is to not raise property taxes and have the property self-sustaining. We are just now in budget season but don’t anticipate any tax increase this year, certainly not related to this purchase.”
Council member Joe Benson brought up some of the parcels utilized for parking will help pay down the $15-million debt, while his colleague, Jay Healy, was clear the purchase would not impact the infrastructure plan already in place for the town.
To PCD, Barbee said a master plan would need to be crafted to outline a vision for the properties, to include public feedback as well. He said since Carolina Beach Land Holdings LLC will own the land through the 2025 summer season, he imagines it will remain an amusement park, but whether the Ferris wheel will stay in place past that is unknown.
Should the sale move forward, the mayor said he has different ideas he would like to see come to fruition, including “much needed parking in that area.”
“However, parking was secondary to building a best-in-class oceanfront park to support events,” he wrote in an email.
There is a desire for the town to build and design a better event space between Silver Dollar and Hurricane Alleys, he said. In the last two decades, there have been discussions about moving back the stage on the Boardwalk where concerts are currently held, to create more of a public area for live music, movies and other events. The mayor called on nonprofits, county, federal and state partners for help with ideas “to be a destination of choice for family-friendly activities and events.”
He pointed to the last six years of council’s commitment to see through multiple projects that have created a better Carolina Beach. He included expanding the skate park, adding a volleyball facility and new lifeguard stations, and the purchase of the 300-acre Freeman Park for $7 million in 2022, among others.
“I know the chamber is happy,” Barbee said in Tuesday’s meeting.
Pleasure Island Chamber Executive Director Jim DeGilio wrote in a statement to PCD the town’s purchase will create a more cohesive footprint for a Boardwalk Business District, “in terms of commerce as well as community spirit.”
The chamber hosts the annual Beach Music Festival near the boardwalk. The boardwalk also has concerts and fireworks every Thursday throughout the summertime, but larger events often have to go elsewhere, according to the chamber’s marketing director, Jacqueline L. Wikander.
“In recent years, many community events have been moved to Carolina Beach Lake Park, which is a beautiful park, but is located at the farthest end of our community, rather than at the heart of Carolina Beach, the Boardwalk,” she said. “We feel that this move opens up the opportunity to create a center-of-town where the community can come together and additional events to support tourism year-round can be held.”
Barbee noted in the meeting the sale will position the town for further growth and ensure quality of life for its constituents.
“This emphasizes the need to put residents first and the belief that we can keep Carolina Beach a great place to live,” he said at the meeting. “If we keep it a great place to live, our tourism economy will flourish.”
In 2023, according to Visit North Carolina, New Hanover County saw a 5.9% increase in tourism spending from 2022, accounting for $1.12 billion. This includes Wilmington, Wrightsville Beach, Carolina Beach and Kure Beach.
Council member Deb LeCompte thought the town taking ownership over the parcels would also be beneficial in the long-run.
“This is a huge investment in our town, in our future, and the face of who we are,” she said.
Benson alluded to preserving it in a way that would avoid any high-rise development as well: “And the assurance that we’re gonna have that unfettered look at the dunes, nothing obscuring their view … The sky’s the limit, without sounding too cliché.”
Port City Daily also reached out to area locals for resident feedback but didn’t hear back by press; this will be updated upon response.
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