The property, advertised as “Hilton Bluffs on the Cape Fear,” is 4,084 acres bounded by roughly eight miles of the Northeast Cape Fear River, along with state-owned conservation land and General Electric Hitachi’s sprawling nuclear fuel-production facility.
The property includes 900 acres of ‘upland’ (that is, buildable) area — but much of the rest of it is brackish marsh or swamp forest. Most of the buildable property appears to be zoned rural residential, while the rest of the property is identified in New Hanover County’s future land use map as “conservation,” meaning “increased density would be discouraged, and low impact development methods would be required. Such requirements place limits on development so as to ensure the protection of resources,” according to the county’s website.
The massive parcel was originally owned by W.F. Sledge, a former lumber tycoon from Whiteville, who in the early 1980s was identified by StarNews as one of the top owners of undeveloped land in New Hanover County. The land has since been passed down to Sledge’s heirs and a series of LLCs, most recently SJM Hilton LLC.
The current rural residential zoning would limit how much could be built on the property, but there's likely to be an effort to rezone it.
The land is on the market, currently being brokered by Foundry Commercial as “Hilton Bluffs on the Cape Fear.” In Foundry’s brochure, the company recommends “a rezoning to New Hanover County R-15 Residential District will help to increase density and maximize the development potential of the Hilton Property.” That rezoning, Foundry suggests, would allow over 3,000 units to be built — likely single-family homes — in a master-planned development.
The land’s current appraised tax value is just over $12 million — but it could potentially be worth much more if developed. Taking the fairly conservative side of the average new home cost in New Hanover County — say, roughly $350,000 — those 3,000 units would translate into over $1 billion in real estate.
The land is under contract, although Foundry said it was not at liberty to say who the potential buyer is.
New Hanover County said it was aware of the interest in the property, but that no formal plans had been submitted to begin either by-right construction or a rezoning request.
“We have had an initial meeting with some representatives of the project to go over the zoning and development regulations that would apply to the site, but we have not had any plan submitted to our office,” Rebekah Roth, the county’s planning director, said of the Hilton Bluffs property.
Roth also said that a rezoning could allow the 3,000 or more units suggested by Foundry — but only within federal, state, and local guidelines.
“Under the County’s performance residential standards, that number of units could be possible if a portion of the property were designated as conservation—otherwise density couldn’t be pulled off of certain types of environmental features. In addition to federal and state wetland protections, the County’s conservation resource standards would also impact where development could occur on the property,” Roth said.
Several neighbors of the project expressed concerns to WHQR, including increased traffic onto two-lane Castle Hayne Road, as well as deforestation and stormwater impacts to the wetlands in the northwestern part of the county. Many of those issues would have to be addressed as part of a rezoning process, and some neighbors are likely to object — especially given growing concerns about overdevelopment in southeastern North Carolina.
If developers move forward with a rezoning, they’ll likely be required to hold a community meeting. Then it will go before New Hanover County’s planning board, which makes recommendations to county commissioners, who have the final say.
