WILMINGTON — Signs indicating “state owned property, no trespassing” are posted on adjacent parcels to the Greenfield Lake Yacht Club, a popular bar on Carolina Beach Road that will shutter this month. A yearslong project by the North Carolina Department of Transportation is in full swing to widen the roadway and thus has the agency buying up land where construction will take place.
Greenfield Lake Yacht Club is in the pathway. Owner Billy Mellon and his partners Fred Flynn and Audrey Holloman hoped to find a location at nearby Greenfield Lake to stay within their moniker.
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“But there’s not a ton of inventory out there,” Mellon told Port City Daily Wednesday.
The NCDOT has been working on a road expansion and intersection project to help with congestion reduction, safety improvements, and thwart rail traffic conflicts along Carolina Beach Road, from Kentucky Avenue to Front and Willard streets.
The project dates back almost a decade but has struggled with funding. It was eventually added to the 2024-2033 State Transportation Improvement Program, a 10-year capital project plan identifying how to pay for roadway needs and scheduling a timeline to completion. The project also has since received federal funding from the Surface Transportation Block Grant.
Mellon bought the former Dubliner business, located at 1756 Carolina Beach Rd., from Andrew Brothers in 2022. Mellon thought they had at least another decade before movement would be seen on the NCDOT project, judging by the slow-moving process leading up to that point. The first community meeting for construction began back in 2016, with the last hosted in October 2025 for updated design plans.
NCDOT formerly told Port City Daily in 2022 it expected rights-of-way acquisition would resume by 2027. The project entered the ROW phase in late 2025, according to NCDOT spokesperson Veronica Newsome, and is scheduled to solicit for construction bids by the summer of 2029.
The state agency is upgrading South Front Street from a two-to-four-lane divided highway, adding a 10-foot multi-use path, relocating a rail line between Marsteller and Wright streets, and converting the South Front Street and Burnett Boulevard intersection into a double quadrant. This design attempts to improve traffic flow by moving all left turns away from the main intersection.
Projected right-of-way costs are estimated around $35.8 million, with $3.2 million in utility relocation and $37.5 million in construction.
The Greenfield Yacht Club is one of a dozen parcels in the construction footprint, along with a Han Dee Hugo’s gas station and JT Lea and Son’s propane distribution company. NCDOT already tore down the propane company structure, formerly at 1760 Carolina Beach Road, as well as the building once housing Joe’s Scooter and Repair Sales at 418 Kentucky Ave.
Mellon said NCDOT approached the yacht club and the property’s landlord, Al Cervini, around a year ago about moving forward on acquisitions. Cervini bought the building and property, separate from the business, in 2023 for $450,000 and will receive fair market value from NCDOT, per its policy. According to Newsome, the state transportation hasn’t closed on it yet as it’s still in negotiation.
Mellon said the yacht club would need to be out by roughly fall 2026. But because his liquor license needed to be re-upped through the North Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission at the end of April 2026, Mellon didn’t want to take a chance staying much longer.
“Why redo a $2,000 license?” he said, noting it didn’t make sense under the circumstances.
So the last day for the bar will be Sunday, April 26.
Mellon used to live in the nearby Sunset Park neighborhood years ago and remembered frequenting the establishment when it was the Dubliner. Once an Irish pub, it dated back to the mid-1990s, with Brothers’ purchasing it from William Thomas for $290,000 in 2017.
“I was a regular there,” Mellon recalled when he lived on nearby Jefferson Street.
He said he considered buying the building in 2022 in addition to the business, but because of the NCDOT scenario, he erred on the side of caution. Still, Mellon loved the bar.
“It reminded me of places I grew up in, bars I went to with my dad from time to time,” he told Port City Daily in 2022.
Even though Mellon changed the name and upfitted and modernized the interior, he said the goal was to keep it approachable in price and scope. Greenfield Lake Yacht Club also became a hot spot for concert-going crowds looking for a place to hang out ahead of or after a show at Greenfield Lake Amphitheater, located within walking distance.
Flynn and Holloman oversaw the operations daily, with Mellon helping with its retrofit. While the bar offered $2 beers and simple drinks that didn’t break the bank, Fred began bringing in Prohibition Era cocktails, like Sazaracs, and elevated some of the bourbon offerings. Having formerly headed the craft cocktail program at Mellon’s fine-dining restaurant Manna in downtown, Fred’s talent helped vary clientele as well.
“You could be blue collar and stay in the neighborhood, but we also welcomed hipsters that may want a fancy cocktail,” Mellon said. “Fred can do it all.”
Its appeal of being a dive bar never went away, often featuring local musicians and events on the expansive outdoor patio.
Mellon said he and his partners are still actively looking at potential properties to open the yacht club elsewhere.
“The ideal scenario is finding a place that doesn’t need a lot of retrofitting,” Mellon said. “While NCDOT covers moving, and a little bit of rebranding, maybe increased rent for a period of time, it’s not going to cover me going in there and redoing a whole bar.”
NCDOT confirmed it covers costs but said they are “determined on a case-by-case basis” and wouldn’t further explain what goes into the process, noting it “is between NCDOT and the parcel owner.”
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