Property owners expect the completion this year of a highly anticipated road project to help drive businesses and homes to the northern Brunswick County town of Navassa. 

The last portion of the Interstate 140 bypass, a project that is connecting U.S. 17 in Brunswick County to U.S. 17 in New Hanover County, is expected to be finished by November and is already having an impact on two planned unit developments that have been in the works for several years -- the nearly 900-acre River Bend at Cedar Hill owned by Wilmington River Club and the 1,000-acre Indian Creek development owned by Mulberry Land Company LLC.

River Bend is permitted to hold up to 2,199 homes, while Indian Creek could hold more than 3,600 residential units, 2,200 of which would be single-family homes. 

Wilmington River Club, a partnership of 12 investors that bought the land for River Bend about 10 years ago, has hired land planner Scott Stewart to design the community's 35-acre commercial portion, developers said recently. Stewart, a landscape architect, developer and builder, has helped shape award-winning communities in New Hanover and Brunswick counties.

"Now that we're getting to the point where the development activity appears to be imminent in the next year, we wanted to clean that plan up and put the pieces together for potential uses," Jon T. Vincent, managing partner in Wilmington River Club, said of the commercial portion of River Bend.

He believes the order of uses for the commercial site could be a convenience store with fueling stations first, then some restaurant pads and a retail center anchored by a grocery store, followed by a hotel.

Jim Wallace, another partner in Wilmington River Club, who is also founder and CEO of Intracoastal Realty, said interest in the residential portions of the property has been on the rise.

"We've had quite a few people we're talking to. We haven't made any decisions yet, but our plans are to sell partials, tracts of land, to developers to develop the residential portions," Wallace said.

Plans for Indian Creek, a few miles down Cedar Hill Road in Navassa from the River Bend land, are also progressing.

"We anticipate finishing the planning and engineering up this year and starting the improvements in the first part of next year," said Steven Maccurry, one of the managing members of Mulberry Land Company.

Maccurry said he sees Indian Creek having a major effect on the future of northern Brunswick County and Wilmington.

"When the bypass is open, you're six or seven minutes from downtown Wilmington," he said. "It's really remarkable." 

Town of Navassa officials are banking on the road, and the subsequent development of Indian Creek and River Bend, to bring more economic development to the community, which has a population of just under 2,000 residents.

"That's what we're interested in, that's what we're looking at and that's what we're hoping the new road will bring -- some new jobs and give us a few more options for the permanent residents that we've got here," longtime Navassa Mayor Eulis Willis said.