In May 2023, Carolina Beach Land Holdings, LLC, signed a short-term lease agreement with the Town of Carolina Beach to continue the operation of a 95-foot Ferris wheel, and it’s up as of January 1.
The town had earlier entered into a similar lease running from April 2022 to March 2023. The lease allowed the new, larger Ferris Wheel to be set up, one that was roughly twice as tall as a previous version that had operated in the past. Just recently, that Ferris Wheel was removed, ahead of the expiration of the lease from the town.
According to documents acquired from the town, the owners of the company, Matt Murphy and Ken Cofer, plan to ask for a 10-year lease agreement; the request is slated to go before the Carolina Beach town council at its next meeting on January 9. (Note: Cofer has adopted a spelling of his family name with a single 'f,' but his name occasionally appears in some documents and emails with his name spelled "Coffer.")
Presumably, a new lease would allow the return of the Ferris Wheel.
However, Town Manager Bruce Oakley said he and his staff are not recommending they enter into a long-term lease of the public property.
Records show that the most recent round of negotiations between the parties began in early October of this year. Murphy sent an email to Oakley asking for a five-year lease with two five-year renewals to “ensure stability for the ride company” that operates the Ferris wheel on 3 Carolina Beach Avenue South.
Murphy mentioned to Oakley that this timeframe would be adequate as it’s difficult and expensive for the ride owners to move the equipment.
He added that he’d be willing to work with the town if they were going to need a “laydown area” for a future bathroom renovation.
He also wanted to know when the project was going out for bid. And said that his company would be interested in purchasing the lot in the future. However, if the lot was to be bought by a private entity, under North Carolina law, the town would have to put the land out for bid, not just transfer it over to Murphy and Cofer.
It's not the first time Murphy tried to get a longer-term deal. Roughly a year earlier, in October of last year, Murphy was trying to get a longer lease. On October 18, 2022, Murphy added a handwritten note to the original lease agreement, writing in new dates (April 2023 — March 2028) as a proposed five-year extension; he copied council members Joe Benson and Deb LeCompte — but not the rest of council — on his correspondence to Oakley.
On November 1, 2022, Murphy sent an email to Oakley, asking why there was a holdup on the decision for the proposed lease agreement, saying they had “support from council.” Oakley responded, “I’ll present it to council for their consideration.”
But Council didn't go for the longer-term deal, and ended up agreeing to the current lease — starting May 16, 2023 and ending on January 1, 2024.
Fast forward to this October, Murphy told the town he wanted to continue to pay $400 a month to lease the property. That's less than the roughly $775 the town is paying in debt service for the $339,500 purchase of 3 Carolina Beach Avenue South property back in 2019.
According to Port City Daily reporting from last year, Carolina Beach Mayor Lynn Barbee justified the original below-market rent as repayment, saying Cofer had rented the town some land several years ago for a reduced price — $400.
According to September 2019 council minutes, the property was originally purchased for the building of “a possible storage facility for ocean rescue and parks and recreation equipment, public bathrooms, storage of security equipment or reconstruction for open space.” But the project eventually morphed into ‘Hamlet Ocean Rescue/Bathroom Facility’ and was later moved to another town-owned property.
The town rolled both the purchase of 3 Carolina Beach and the Hamlet project into one loan agreement costing $31,098 annually; however, these payments slightly decrease each year, according to the town’s financial officer.
Murphy said he wanted Oakley to "see if you can get a 10-year lease approved with conditions that are no more restrictive than our current CUP (conditional use permit)."
What complicates matters further is that Carolina Beach Land Holdings, LLC, recently filed a lawsuit in November against the town over a dispute about public easements surrounding the town’s Boardwalk.
Oakley said while he can’t make further comment since it’s a pending lawsuit, he did clarify that the property in question is a portion of the easternmost concrete sidewalk in the Boardwalk area, saying it’s adjacent to the land where the Ferris wheel is located, the property that’s up for the lease extension.
The Pendergrass Law Firm, which represents Carolina Beach Land Holdings, LLC, wrote in a civil filing that they want the court to rule that part of the public easement that the town is using is actually the company's property — and the court could “recover such other and further relief as to the court deems just and proper.”
Carolina Beach Land Holdings owns nine properties, collectively appraised at $3.4 million by the county tax department, surrounding the Boardwalk, one of the town’s biggest tourist attractions.
However, these tax assessments, last done in January 2021, pale in comparison to the actual sale price of the properties. For example, the company bought 101 Cape Fear Boulevard in 2021 for $1 million even though the tax value was assessed at $434,000.
WHQR reached out to Murphy for comment and has yet to hear back.
