At Cape Fear Games, playing with Magic makes success appear.

The Oleander Drive business, which sells board and card games including Magic: The Gathering, will move its retail operation to a bigger space that owner Heath Newton is buying for $1.3 million in Anderson Square.

Newton and store manager Andrew Westin said they had been trying to move the retail operation for three years.

“At first, we were going to just lease something else, but then, once I started thinking about it, I just wanted to buy. I’m so tired of paying rent. It’s expensive,” said Newton, whose monthly rent bill at the store’s current location, at 3608 Oleander Drive, is $4,100.
But it wasn’t easy to find the right spot.

“We needed a lot of parking and a lot of space so that either narrowed it down or just made it too expensive,” Newton said.

He had considered the property where The Salt Shaker Bookstore and Café used to be on South Kerr Avenue, but the asking price was a little more than $2 million, Newton said.

Anderson Square, in the 4100 block of Oleander Drive, fit the store’s needs while also maintaining the visibility it currently has in a shopping center in front of Independence Mall. Newton is buying two units totaling about 8,000 square feet, with plans to lease some of the space to another business. The closing on the sale of the new property is scheduled for Aug. 4.

Cape Fear Games was represented in the deal by Chuck Lydon, senior vice president of Wilmington-based Coldwell Banker Commercial Sun Coast Partners, and Tyler Pegg, co-founder of The CRESS Group of Coldwell Banker Commercial Sun Coast Partners and fellow commercial real estate advisor and broker. The seller was Steve Anderson.

Cape Fear Games will still sell card and board games and disc golf equipment at its new location. It will also continue to offer a place for players to gather and play, but will add three private rooms players can rent, with the nominal fees going toward store credit, Newton said.

While the move will take several weeks, Newton and Westin said it comes at a good time because in October, the store will be one of seven across the U.S. to host a WizKids Open tournament. WizKids makes HeroClix, a miniatures game. The current store doesn’t have enough room to accommodate the expected 150 to 200 players for both days of the event.

Magic: The Gathering, a trading card game based on a fantasy world, is by far the most profitable game for Cape Fear Games, Newton and Westin said. They sell the cards online and in the store, sending the product to customers worldwide in paper and digital versions.