A $5 million luxury home sale has broken a New Hanover County record set earlier this year.

Landmark Sotheby's International Realty in Wilmington announced Tuesday that recently one of its agents brokered New Hanover’s highest residential sale in more than a decade, with a closed price tag of $5 million for the property at 407 Bradley Creek Point Road in Wilmington.

"Prior to this closing, the highest sale in New Hanover County in the past 10 years had occurred in February of 2018, when Landmark Sotheby’s International Realty sold the historic 'Parsley Mansion' at 7521 Masonboro Sound Road" for $4.9 million, the announcement stated.

The announcement did not include the Bradley Creek Point Road buyer's name, but according to the deed, it was philanthropist Joan H. Gillings, and the sellers were Cecil Worsley III, chairman of Port City Java and president and CEO of Springer Eubank Co., and JoAnna Worsley. 

Gillings made the news last year in the Triangle because of her $12 million gift to PlayMakers Repertory Company and the department of dramatic art at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The endowment was the largest single gift by a living individual to benefit the performing arts at the school, a news release at the time stated. As a result, UNC's Center for Dramatic Art, home to the school's department of dramatic art and PlayMakers, was named the Joan H. Gillings Center for Dramatic Art.

Gillings was represented in the Wilmington transaction by Sam R. Crittenden of Landmark Sotheby's. The property consists of a 6,500-square-foot home on the Intracoastal Waterway that was built about five years ago by Tongue & Groove, a Wilmington-based custom homebuilder.

Vance Young, of Vance Young and Associates of Wilmington-based Intracoastal Realty, represented the sellers.

"The Airlie Road corridor is maybe the most sought-after address in New Hanover County," Young said, "and this particular property was world class in its old-world feel and it's on the most valuable lot within the neighborhood. So it's just a very unique combination of perfect location and exquisite design...Mark Batson [of Tongue & Groove] did a fantastic job on it, and everyone that looked at the house was blown away with the attention to detail and the quality. The Worsleys had done a tremendous job sourcing items throughout the home from all over the world."

The home garnered attention in statewide publications in September because it was set to be sold at an auction before Hurricane Florence made landfall Sept. 14, but Young said that auction was called off after the storm. 

The inventory of waterfront homes for sale in New Hanover County is dwindling, which could be a challenge Realtors face in the next year, Young said.

Overall, the luxury market in New Hanover fared better in October after its worst month ever recorded in September, for which Hurricane Florence was largely to blame, Realtors said in a report released this month.

Throughout the year, high-dollar home sales have continued to show strength, agents say.

"I think that it absolutely is a great sign for the market here in Wilmington that we had two sales of that magnitude take place in the same year," said Nick Phillips, broker and owner of Landmark Sotheby's International Realty.