James Lea III and Lea Development LLC recently broke ground for Dolphin Shores condominiums at Holden Beach. The gated, 159-unit community will be across the Intracoastal Waterway from the island.

The development will include boat storage, a pool complex and clubhouse on the waterway and a fitness club facility with lap pool. Pre-construction prices start at $449,900-$595,900.

Those attending the ground-breaking ceremony included county commissioners Chairman David Sandifer, Brunswick County Chamber of Commerce President Mitzi York, Sheriff Ronald Hewett, Holden Beach Mayor Norman Meares and Scott Bradley and Tim Barnes, whose Bradley Barnes Construction Co. will build Dolphin Shores.

Martha Lee, president of Martha Lee Realty, is marketing and sales director for Dolphin Shores. For more information, call 846-2402 or go to the Web site: www.dolphinshores.com.

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Despite softer market, developers putting up more units

February 11, 2007
by Amanda Lewis
Star News (Copyright ©2007 - Star News , a New York Times Company)

More than 400 condos are on the market in Brunswick County beach towns, but that's not slowing down developers from building more.

A gated condo community is coming soon to Holden Beach, a large condo development is nearing completion beside the Oak Island bridge, and in April work will start on a 110,000-square-foot project in Sunset Beach. Its builder, Walter Knott of Waterway Landing LLC, says national reports of rising interest rates and slipping sales shouldn't concern builders when it comes to Brunswick County.

"The national media put the doom and gloom on the market, but for Brunswick County, we have a niche marketplace. We have the water and we continue to have the people relocating here from Florida and New York," said Knott, a former financial consultant who knows firsthand about the ups and the downs of investing.

Take for example the "up" year of 2005 when Seaside Landing - a six-story, Sunset Beach condo high rise built by Knott's company - sold out within a month and single-family home sellers were getting top dollar with multiple offers.

"You would list a lot or a residence, and within days it was sold," said Martha Lee, of Martha Lee Realty in Holden Beach. "It was incredible - an explosion in real estate. Property was appreciating quicker than we've seen in years."

With nowhere to go but down, even Brunswick County - the 29th fastest growing county in the country, according to United Van Lines - took a hit.

The short-term investors of 2005 who made a fast buck on a quick flip are gone, listings are back to taking longer than two weeks to sell, and Brunswick County real estate operators like Knott and Lee are playing it safe.

While the more than 400 beach town condos on the market in Brunswick County is nothing compared to the more than 4,000 for sale in Myrtle Beach, adjusting to slowing trends is smart development, says Knott. Instead of pumping millions of dollars into one giant high-rise, with his upcoming condo project Knott will instead build a series of smaller buildings one at a time.

"You reduce your risk that way," he said. "Yes the market is soft, but we're not going to run and hide."

Once complete, another project of Knott's in Sunset Beach, near Seaside Landing, will have four buildings totaling 85 units sold off in phases.

A similar approach is planned for Dolphin Shores, the gated condo development in Holden Beach on the Intracoastal Waterway that Lee is marketing. It broke ground in January. Plans call for a 162-unit resort-style neighborhood of three-bedroom, three-bath condos built in two phases. The first are expected to be complete as early as this summer. So far, 31 units are reserved.

"That's what people want - upgrades, getting as close to the water as they can. And it's not a million dollars they have to pay," Lee said.

Being on the waterway versus the ocean allows Lee to offer units in the $400,000 range without having to give up country club amenities.

Nationally, studies suggest that condo living with shared facilities like pools, tennis courts and gyms is appealing to more people than ever before because of shifting demographics.

"Home buyers who are married used to make up more than 50 percent of the market, which is why most builders built single-family homes for them. Now they are only 48 percent of the market," said Blanche Evans, Realty Times editor and author of Bubbles, Booms and Busts.

"With married couples diminishing as the major force in home buying, you'll see more alternatives to single-family home building because smaller households - singles, empty nesters, single parents - will continue to demand lower-maintenance homes with more amenities, for which condos are the answer," she said.

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