Changes planned on undeveloped tracts in the Leland community of Brunswick Forest include two new buildings, one expected to hold a dance studio along with space for lease and another potential indoor pickleball facilities.
The town of Leland's planning board recently recommended approval for changes to Brunswick Forest's master plan to allow the new building.
For Sara Clemmons, partnering with Plantation Building Corp. on a 4,000-square-foot building to partly serve as the new space for her business, Coastal Dance Academy, is a dream come true.
Clemmons, who has operated a dance academy for six years, has been leasing about 2,000 square feet at Cross Creek Commons shopping center in Leland.
"It's always been my dream to own my own dance studio ... I just think it makes sense in the long run to own from a financial standpoint. Leasing's been great, but I want to be able to make it my own. This has been my dream for my whole life. I'm really looking forward to making it my dream dance studio," said Clemmons, who at 35 is in her 13th year of teaching dance and who has been a dancer for 30 years.
"Right now we only have one studio room, so we will be upgrading to two studio rooms, which is going to be so wonderful, to be able to have classes going on at the same time," she said. "We get questions all the time from adults wanting to have adult dance classes, and we sometimes don't have the space to accommodate them."
Coastal Dance Academy, serving dance students 18 months old and up, has about 130 students currently. The new space will be about 2,800 square feet, with about 1,200 square feet leftover in the building, which will be located at 1010 Evangeline Drive, that will be available for lease to other tenants.
To Clemmons, Brunswick Forest "seems like such a great, growing location in Leland for businesses, and it's a good central location in Leland."
Dave Spetrino, president of Plantation Building Corp., said his company hopes to get started on the building in January or February.
"We're hoping to open next summer," Clemmons said, referring to summer 2018.
Site plans submitted to the town of Leland for Cape Fear Indoor Pickleball show two 14,000-square-foot buildings that would hold pickleball courts, one in the first phase and one that would be built in the future.
Pickleball is a racquet sport that combines elements of badminton, tennis and table tennis. The game was invented in 1965 in the state of Washington, according to USAPA Pickleball.
Efforts to reach a Cape Fear Indoor Pickleball representative were unsuccessful this week.
The Coastal Dance building and pickleball courts aren't the only developments in the works for Brunswick Forest. In another example, construction is under way on a new retail/office building in the Villages at Brunswick Forest that will hold restaurants and a retailer.
