Developers are planning to add two buildings with space for office and retail users off Carolina Beach Road in Wilmington.

The project would be built on undeveloped land at 4625 Fairview Drive in front of Meridian at Fairfield Park, a 241-unit apartment community completed in 2016 near Codington Elementary School.

The undeveloped property belongs to Neal Hunt of Raleigh, a retired apartment developer and former state senator, who is also a joint venture partner in Meridian at Fairfield Park, having contributed the land for the apartments while keeping the commercial outparcel to be developed as a separate project, said Richard Cotton, managing director of Multifamily Realty Advisors. Cotton is a partner with Hunt in the commercial project dubbed "Fairfield Mixed-Use" on site plans submitted to the city of Wilmington.

"As a commercial broker specializing in apartment sales and development, over the past 12 years I have represented Neal on many occasions including the sale of 7 apartment projects that he had developed," Cotton said in an email. "With respect to the Fairfield Mixed-Use project, however, I will be stepping away from my role as broker and Neal and I will be partners in the development of this project. Newly formed Fairfield Mixed-Use, LLC will be the development entity. Our development team includes Cothran Harris Architecture, Cline Design, and BNK Consulting Engineers. As for leasing and management of the buildings, we plan to engage a local commercial firm, yet to be determined."

He said the project will consist of two, 2-story buildings, each with 20,000 square feet for a total of 40,000 square feet.

"The first floor is designed to accommodate retail and/or professional offices and the second floor will be exclusively office space. We are hoping to have as much retail as possible on the first floor, especially retail shops and restaurants that will be an added amenity for the residents of the apartment community. Because of the shared parking with the residents of Meridian at Fairfield Park, however, we are limiting the total retail space to the first floor of each building, or 20,000 square feet," Cotton said.
 
He said no start date for the project has been determined and the development team has not selected a general contractor yet.

"We will likely wait until the first building has been at least partially pre-leased before the start of construction," Cotton said.

Site plans for the Fairfield Mixed-Use project are on the agenda for review for the March 8 meeting of the city's Technical Review Committee.