Former Gateway Property Sold For $1.15M

Jun 14, 2012

Story by: J. Elias O’Neal, posted on WilmingtonBiz.com

Two pieces of riverfront property downtown are seeing movement in the marketplace.

The former Gateway Project – 712 Surry Street – was sold Wednesday, said Brian Eckel, co-founder of Wilmington-based Cape Fear Commercial.

Eckel, along with Hank Miller, brokered the land transaction.

The Gateway Project was an 11-story, 260-unit condo development that would have boasted a restaurant, 40 boat slips and retail space. But after the local real estate market tanked, the large-scale development became enthralled in lawsuits, making it hard to secure funding during an already tight lending market.

The 10-acre site along the Cape Fear River was sold for $1.15 million to Wilmington-based Riverman LLC – a company registered to Michael E. McCarley, president of Carolina Marine Terminal, according to state documents.

State lawmakers are considering legislation that would give Carolina Marine Terminal state and local sales tax breaks on nearly $10 million worth of equipment purchases to create 75 jobs in the area. According to state documents, the shipping firm would use the equipment to unload roughly

300,000 tons of unprocessed fertilizer shipments a year at its River Road facility.

Calls to McCarley were not returned as of Thursday afternoon.

The 8.06-acre former Sawmill Point Marina property also is under contract.

Located north of PPD near the Isabel Holmes Bridge, the former development was foreclosed on and is now owned by SunTrust Bank.

Eckel would not comment about the potential buyer of that property.

View the original story at the Greater Wilmington Business Journal.