New commercial buildings have been filling in the blanks recently on a heavily traveled portion of Oleander Drive, with numerous projects currently under construction along the corridor between South College and Greenville Loop roads in Wilmington.

And developers and brokers expect more activity to come to a part of the city that seems to have been overlooked in the past.

“We think that part of Oleander Drive has a bright future. We think in a lot of ways it was passed over when all the growth at Military Cutoff and Eastwood Road occurred,” said Jason Swain of Swain & Associates, whose company purchased a former movie theater property at 5335 Oleander Drive and has adjacent acres under contract. “And with the city growing so dramatically and with the sort of limited development potential in the rest of the city and the county, we think that that’s prime for redevelopment and really can be improved in a lot of different ways.”

Swain said his company is in the early land planning stages for the property, which would end up totaling about 8 acres and is expected to be the site of a commercial venture in the future. Swain & Associates paid about $2 million to UNCW Corporation Oleander One LLC, a University of North Carolina Wilmington associated entity, for the former Carmike Cinemas property.

“What we eventually do is dependent on what exactly we can get on the property and what lays out and what seems to work well in concert with Oleander Drive and the neighborhood,” Swain said.

The company is taking its time, he said.

“Our goal is always to do something sooner than later, but we never want to rush into anything. Our goal is to identify highest and best uses and then put together the best deal we can based on the criteria that we know and what the community wants as well,” said Swain, whose firm developed and now manages The Forum on Military Cutoff Road.

It’s possible the former Carmike Cinemas building, which has been vacant for more than a decade, could be incorporated into the redevelopment plan.

“If we could reuse the building and turn it into something nice so it doesn’t look like an old movie theater, then we would be open to that for sure,” Swain said.

Offices at Mayfaire and Airlie Offices developer Steve Anderson also has 5.85 acres under contract in the 5800 block of Oleander Drive with plans to replace all of the existing buildings with new class-A commercial space for retail, office, restaurant and potential flex/warehouse users.

Anderson sees the potential for about 60,000 square feet or more of commercial space and up to 165 parking spaces on the property.

“So far, we’re still just checking to see what the market is telling us here, but just in the last year, we’ve really seen the lights coming on in this part of Oleander,” Anderson said. “There’s a lot going on in this little corridor. I see a tremendous amount of potential in this area.”

Anderson is working with Tripp Engineering, Cothran Harris Architecture and McKinley Building Corp. on the new Oleander project, which has access off 58th Street and Oleander Drive that has proven to be attractive to potential tenants.

“We currently have a very impressive list of interested users both in the retail, office, flex and food categories adding up to over 50 percent of our available square footage,” Anderson said. “This amount of early interest gives us the ability to work with a select group of top clients in their field.”

Anderson said the purchase of the Oleander Drive property has a projected closing date in April, and the development team is expected to submit the site plan for the project soon after the transaction is complete.

The listing agent for the property, which includes Newber Refrigeration, is broker Peter S. Vinal, owner of Peter S. Vinal & Associates. To Vinal, that stretch of Oleander Drive began waking up soon after he represented the seller for the sale of the property where Wilmington Tire & Auto was built.

Before that, “Oleander had a virus on it for quite some time,” Vinal said. “Then things started catching on.”

Other catalysts, in Vinal’s opinion, are the fact that Oleander doesn’t have an overlay district, which can keep some owners from making the most of their properties, and the need for more retail space as Wilmington grows and more businesses want to open shops in high-profile areas, Vinal said.

Projects currently coming to Oleander Drive include Paws & Claws Animal Hospital, Wells Insurance Office, Intracoastal Seafood, Oleander Self Storage II, an H2 Turbo Express car wash and an automotive center.

Wells Insurance, which has been in business for nearly 100 years, has a downtown Wilmington office and is expanding with the Oleander Drive location.

The additional office will “give our clients easier access to Wells Insurance, along with having our business be on one of the main arteries of Wilmington,” said Steve Wells, co-president of Wells insurance with his brother, Hal Wells.

Steve Wells said the company expects the new office building to be open by this summer.
Closer to South College Road, some homes have been turned into offices, including real estate firm Sold Buy the Sea.

Not all of the developments proposed for the corridor have found success in coming to fruition.

The city of Wilmington’s Planning Commission voted last year not to approve a plan for 38 duplexes and townhomes that would have replaced Oleander Golf Center at 5026 Oleander Drive.

But infill and redevelopment projects like those currently occurring on Oleander Drive are expected to continue cropping up as the area grows and fewer undeveloped acres are available, developers said.

“We’re going to have to look at redevelopment of older sites in the community that served their purpose but have a higher and better use right now,” Swain said. “I think that’s a big part of the future for Wilmington and a lot of communities in general.”