A set of developers bullish on Brunswick County’s blossoming baby boomer population will soon break ground on a massive mixed-use development that will cater to the aging demographic.
 
Officials with Southport-based Legacy Community Partners announced Wednesday plans to construct as many as 2,250 living units made up of single-family and multi-family dwellings on a 2,114-acre site at the intersection of Midway Road and N.C. Highway 211 in a development called The Charles.
 
The development would mostly be in Oak Island’s zoning jurisdiction.
 
Homes are slated to start in the $250,000 range.  
 
Robert J. Duffy, a developer and former general manager at St. James Plantation, said the overall development will incorporate a mix of retail, office, medical and residential units for seniors aged 55 and up. He added that Legacy officials are also in the process of seeking a continuing care retirement community designation from the N.C. Department of Insurance.
 
Officials plan to break ground on phase one of the development, a 30,000-square-foot medical building, by the fall.
 
Gene Vaughan, a partner involved in The Charles development, said officials plan to unveil the health care anchor of the medical component in the coming weeks.
 
By the spring of 2016, the Legacy development team hopes to have various homesites, community green space and recreational facilities under construction for occupancy and use, a news release said.
 
Duffy said additional phases of the development would be market driven.
 
Plans for the 46.5-acre commercial health care and retail campus, with frontage along N.C. Highway 211, will include: a skilled nursing, assisted living, memory care and acute health care facility with integrated family and senior medicine, occupational and physical therapists, in-home health care and medical equipment providers, as well as on-campus dining and complete wellness facilities, convenience shopping and personal services establishments, a news release said.  
 
Other amenities planned for the site include biking and walking paths, fitness, exercise and recreational facilities, Duffy said. He added a significant amount of the 2,114-acre development is wetlands, which officials plan not to disturb and also to make an amenity.
 
As the project is developed, officials expect to create roughly 3,500 construction, medical, professional, retail and recreational jobs over time – providing an estimated $750 million economic impact to southern Brunswick County.
 
The Charles joins a growing number of master-planned communities beginning to take root across the region.
 
Wilmington-based Trask Land Co. announced plans in March to construct Blake Farm – a 1,300-acre development near the intersection of U.S. Highway 17 and Sidbury Road at the New Hanover and Pender county lines that would add 2,200 residential units over the next 10 years to the 28411 zip code.
 
The U.S. 17 corridor is also set to see another development take shape in the coming months.

Developers Mike Pollak and David Greer are gearing up to transform parts of the Topsail Greens Golf Club in Hampstead into new homesites for another master-planned community.
 
Called Wyndwater, the development will consist of the addition of 300-400 homes on roughly two-thirds of the 154-acre golf course, official say.