by Keith T. Barber
Last week, plans for The Helm at Wrightsville Beach — the approved mixed-use project for Seagull and Salisbury streets adjacent to Johnnie Mercer’s Pier — were submitted to the Wrightsville Beach Planning Department. The plans, which are dated June 6, 2008, were submitted by Paramounte Engineering Inc. of Wilmington. The names of several other area engineering and design firms, including Lisle Architecture and Design, Woods Engineering and MCBH Engineers, also appeared on the plans. Apex Skypark, a robotic parking engineering firm from Anaheim, Calif., was listed as a contributor to the building plans.
Supplied graphic courtesy of The Manning Companies, LLC Web site
The Wrightsville Beach Planning Department has received plans for The Helm, a mixed-use development on East Salisbury Street. |
On Wednesday, Wrightsville Beach code enforcement officer Kelly Traynham said the planning department had yet to receive a building permit application from the Helm’s developer, the Manning Companies LLC. The last permit applied for by the Manning Companies was a zoning permit to erect a construction fence at the project site. That permit was approved by the town on Oct. 31, 2007. Messages left by Lumina News for John Johnson, Wilmington director of operations for the Manning Companies, went unreturned as of press time.
During his presentation on the 2008-09 municipal budget to the board of aldermen last Thursday, town manager Bob Simpson said town officials are projecting a $150,000 drop in building permit fees this year. Traynham said if The Helm breaks ground this year, it could make a huge difference to her department’s budget.
“It will be a significant permit fee for the building permit, so I anticipate that it will cushion our budget and hopefully give us a nice boost,” Traynham said.
The Helm at Wrightsville Beach, formerly known as the Oceanview project and Seascape, is set to contain five levels, including one level for parking, a ground floor including combined parking and commercial use, another level including combined commercial and residential use, and two full floors of high-end residential units. The structure is slated to contain 65,408 heated square feet and will have a high-tech automated parking system.
In February, workers demolished the Seascape Motel at 17 E. Salisbury St. and a small residential home at 16 Seagull St. to make way for the mixed-use project. On March 20, W. Ward Manning Jr., developer of The Helm, passed away shortly after his single-engine aircraft crashed in a
wooded area outside Charlotte. Since that time, details on the status of The Helm have not been forthcoming from Manning Companies’ representatives.
Terry Espy, an equity partner in the View on Water Street condominium development in downtown Wilmington, said Wrightsville Beach commercial appraiser Haywood Newkirk recently made her aware of some interest from one or more Helm investors in gaining Momentum Group’s involvement.
Espy is president of Momentum Group, a commercial development and design firm headquartered in Raleigh, although Espy resides in Wilmington.
“I haven’t seen numbers or had much of a dialogue other than three or four people have expressed, ‘We really wish you guys could team up in some way,’ considering what we’re doing in downtown Wilmington,” Espy said.
The View on Water Street is a mixed-use development on the site of the 1970s-era Wachovia Building in downtown Wilmington, which is in demolition. Rising 11 stories, the 68-luxury unit site will have 7,000 feet of commercial space and include a rooftop pool overlooking the Cape Fear River. Residential units are priced from $400,000 to $2.2 million. Construction is slated for completion in early 2010.
