NEW HANOVER COUNTY — A nonprofit is requesting $10 million in state funds to buy and conserve more than a fourth of an old-growth forest in Castle Hayne. A developer planning a major residential complex on the site supports the initiative, but a local advocacy group argues the proposal would fail to preserve areas poised for intensive development.
READ MORE: Sledge Forest developer meets with community, new report detects uranium bordering property
Charlotte-based Copper Builders founder Wade Miller sent out a letter to New Hanover County Commissioners and interested citizens Monday announcing his firm had entered an agreement to sell 1,160 of a 4,080 acre Castle Hayne property to Asheville-based nonprofit Unique Places to Save.
Miller signed a memorandum to purchase the property last January. His efforts to build the 4,000-unit Hilton Bluffs development on roughly 1,000 acres has sparked major community pushback; hundreds of residents spoke out against the proposal at a community meeting last month and a petition opposing the development has 8,941 signatures.
The property, known as Sledge Forest, is considered of national significance by the North Carolina Heritage Program. It includes over 3,000 acres of wetlands, 500-year old trees, and rare and threatened species.
Unique Places to Save submitted a $10.2-million request to the North Carolina Land and Water Fund for its proposed Sledge Forest property purchase. The fund is an agency within the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. It awarded $45.4 million in grants last year and is funded through state appropriations.
“[Unique Places to Save’s] NCLWF grant application may or may not be funded and any other conservation efforts we conduct over other portions of the property will require additional time, partnerships, and most likely grant-based and other funding from multiple sources,” Miller wrote in the letter. “We are hopeful our conservation efforts will come to fruition.”
According to a March list of grant applications, the total anticipated cost of the nonprofit’s Sledge Forest conservation effort is $15.2 million. The group also tried to raise money a few years ago to save a portion of Eagles Island from development on the western bank of the Cape Fear River, but plans didn’t work out.
The purchase of Sledge Forest would include 1,160 acres in the northern portion of the property. It includes wetlands, shoreline along the Cape Fear River, land subject to a forestry plan, and uplands Copper Builders planned to use for a golf course.
PCD asked Miller if he could disclose any further details about the purchase agreement, including price, payment schedule, withdrawal conditions, contingencies, and if Copper Builders is financing the purchase with any third party-lenders or investors. The Copper Builders founder could not disclose details about the original purchase or new agreement with Unique Place to Save.
The Sledge Forest site is composed of two parcels. After the county’s recent property revaluation, its appraised value increased by 142% — from $12.7 million last year to $30.8 million in 2025. New Hanover County residential values increased an average of 67.2% this year since 2021’s revaluation.
The North Carolina Land and Water Fund ranks Sledge Forest the highest possible score in its natural heritage category — 50 out of 50. This is used to help classify conservation projects for grant eligibility.
In 2023, the NCLWF board approved $5 million in conservation grant funding to purchase the Castle Hayne site for protection under a conservation easement. NCLWF executive director Will Summer told PCD the agency accepted the applicant’s request to withdraw the $5-million grant because the property owner accepted an offer from a developer.
Unique Places to Save conservation director Michael Scisco emailed county officials in October to discuss Sledge Forest conservation efforts after the grant’s withdrawal.
“We did reach out to the current buyer of the property and after several months of cajoling, we were able to get permission from them to look into a possible park/conservation strategy for portions of the property (not the entire property),” Scisco wrote.
Miller said Copper Builders is willing to consider the sale or easement conservation of portions of the property beyond the 1,160 acres.
“We will advocate to maintain very low impact access to the land for limited recreational purposes, and assume that a golf course would not be included among the conservation uses,” he wrote in an email. “It is also understood that such a sale would also mean that those 1,160 acres would no longer apply to the density calculation because the property would be removed from our neighborhood.”
The county’s technical review committee assessed Copper Builders LLC’s preliminary Hilton Bluffs plan in October. The property is zoned in the rural agricultural district — allowing a maximum of one residential unit per acre — but TRC determined the developer could count the property’s total acreage in its density calculation if it conserves approximately 3,072 acres of wetlands.
Kayne Darrell, founder of grassroots group Save Sledge Forest, and Hampstead-based conservation consultant Andy Wood noted most of the property included in Unique Places to Save’s proposed purchase is wetlands already planned for conservation. They argued the nonprofit should instead focus on purchasing Sledge Forest’s southeastern upland areas — the section of the property planned for clustered residential development.
“The proposal to use public and private monies to purchase unbuildable wetland forest is admirable,” Wood told Port City Daily. “But in natural resource conservation, we prioritize land acquisition funding to protect the most immediately imperiled habitat acres.”
Darrell argued the core issues inspiring resident pushback — increased flood risk, major escalated traffic volume, inadequate infrastructure, and contaminated groundwater concerns from the neighboring General Electric site, a Department of Environmental Quality-designated Inactive Hazardous Waste Site — would not be alleviated by reducing Hilton Bluffs to 3,000 units rather than 4,000.
“The assurance the community wants is for all of Sledge Forest — a local treasure of national significance — to be protected in conservation,” she said.
The Save Sledge Forest founder noted the density calculation already requires Copper Builders to conserve more than 3,000 acres. She questioned how selling land that is largely un-buildable and planned for conservation would affect the county’s density stipulations.
Port City Daily reached out to Unique Place to Save to ask its response to environmentalists’ concerns about the purchase but did not receive a response by press.
“The focus on buying unbuildable wetland forest seems more like subsidizing the developer to maximize private profit rather than using due diligence to protect our region’s most imperiled places and natural heritage,” Wood said.
Unique Places to Save was established as a nonprofit in 2014 by founders Jeffrey Fisher and Michael Scisco. The organization focuses on environmental preservation, restoration, and helping partners pursue financial opportunities in the conservation real estate industry.
“We wanted to create an organization that was more entrepreneurial and seized opportunities with a more ‘business’ approach, as opposed to a traditional nonprofit approach,” Scisco told Port City Daily in 2022.
Unique Places to Save reported large net income compared to expenses in most of its nonprofit tax filings over the past decade. Its net income in recent years includes:
- $392,519 in 2022
- $665,682 in 2021
- $279,345 in 2020
- $387,781 in 2019
- $1.7 million in 2018
The nonprofit reported revenue of $878,601 in its most recent 2022 tax filing, including $128,789 in government grants, $234,220 in contributions and gifts, and $433,080 in mitigation easement consulting.
Its expenses for the year totaled $486,082. Its largest single expense was $194,614 in consulting and professional fees, including $89,000 to a business owned by Scisco and $25,000 to an organization he has a 51% interest in.
The nonprofit invests $245,267 in real estate firm Pickoretum LLC — a for-profit company owned by Unique Places to Save co-founder Jeff Fisher — and $1.7 million in publicly traded securities.
Unique Places to Save reported a loan of $552,575 to EastWest Organics LLC, which is also owned by Fisher, to cover operating expenses in its most recent 2022 tax filing. Fisher’s other firm Pickoretum is the listed entity responsible for the balance. The sum was lent without board approval or a written agreement. The nonprofit’s 2019 tax return reported the organization loaned $658,910 to EastWest Organics.
The nonprofit also reported a $880,773 transfer of cash or property between Fisher’s two businesses — from EastWest Organics to Pickoretum — in its 2022 filing.
Port City Daily asked the nonprofit why it invests in a business owned by its founder, what is the reason for its loan with his firm, and how much it plans to spend on the Sledge Forest purchase. A response was not received by press.
[Update: This article has been updated to clarify NCLWF accepted the applicant’s request to withdraw the $5 million Sledge Forest award rather than rescinding it.]
Tips or comments? Email journalist Peter Castagno at peter@localdailymedia.com.
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