A prime piece of downtown real estate is reemerging on the marketplace as part of the North Carolina Brownfields Program.

Brian Eckel, managing partner and co-founder of Wilmington-based Cape Fear Commercial, announced Thursday the former Sawmill Marina site is priced at $4.4 million — the first time an offering price has been listed for the property. 

The area in and around Sawmill Point was once used for lumberyards, shipping terminals, warehouses and railroad operations. The Wilmington-based commercial brokerage firm is now selling the 41-slip marina and 8.06-acre parcel on behalf of SunTrust Bank.

Cape Fear Commercial and bank officials took the property off the market in October to investigate whether an oil spill that occurred on the property decades ago qualified the location to be a part of the N.C. Brownfields Program. 

The Brownfields Program encourages redevelopment and investment by eliminating potential environmental liability concerns, and provides valuable property tax exclusions that can lower an owner’s tax bill by nearly 50 percent for five years on the development improvements. The property buyer, however, would be solely responsible for cleanup costs.

Since 1997, the Brownfields Property Reuse Act has helped return over 200 properties in North Carolina to productive reuse, and has resulted in over $1 billion worth of real estate investment, according to state records. 

After two thorough reviews by the state and by Raleigh-based environmental advisor John Gallagher, the site had minimal but adequate contamination to qualify for the N.C. Brownfields Program.

Eckel said that, by having the property become part of the program, Cape Fear Commercial officials are hoping to entice investors to consider purchasing and redeveloping one of the few riverfront locations remaining downtown.

This is not the first time the state has designated parcels of property within Wilmington’s former shipping port as brownfields sites.

Officials with USA InvestCo are currently developing a 204-slip marina and hotel within the Northern Riverfront development on a designated brownfield site, and PPD’s 400,000 square foot office complex along Front Street qualified for the program during its development process.