Even before the community’s model homes are finished, more than 20 potential homebuyers have signed pre-sale contracts for homes in RiverLights, a master-planned community under construction on River Road.

Newland Communities bought the property, 1,400 acres along the Cape Fear River, about 10 years ago, with some planning for the development continuing even as the recession darkened the housing market, said Jim Henry, vice president of development for Newland Communities.

“But then when the economy recovered and the housing market started to come back, Newland saw Wilmington as a place where they wanted to continue to invest and what you see on the ground here is a result of that decision,” Henry said Thursday, speaking at a media event in Ember Park, one of several recreation areas included in the plan for RiverLights.

Henry, a local resident who worked for more than a decade with the developers of Bald Head Island, joined the RiverLights team in July. Livian Jones, the former vice president of operations for Newland, left the position to pursue other career opportunities, Jones said Thursday.

Henry said Phase 1 of Marina Village, which includes a mixed-use building with retail space on the bottom and apartments on the second and third floors, is nearing completion.

Of the six spaces available for businesses in the Marina Village building currently in the works, two will be occupied by an information center for the community while four will be home to other tenants.

“We’ve got businesses coming in. We’ll be real excited to announce to everybody who those businesses are soon,” Henry said.

While the Marina Village spaces will be the first commercial portions of the community to be completed, more are expected in the future, including more mixed-use buildings and retail opportunities before the entrance to the RiverLights single-family neighborhoods.

Henry said RiverLights could attract a variety of neighborhood retail, such as a small-scale grocery store and a pharmacy, that would allow residents to get their shopping done without having to leave the community.

He said as a result of the employment of many local development and building professionals and contractors over the next decade, RiverLights is also expected to contribute to Wilmington’s economy through its commercial spaces.

“When you come in and you invest at this level over a 10-year span . . . obviously you bring new homes, improve real estate, and so the tax base grows. I think that’s the most obvious economic impact. But also the commercial opportunities that will be available, the new businesses that will come in as the community grows -- those will become stable businesses and provide long-term platforms for economic growth,” Henry said.

Mainly local crews are working on the model homes in those portions of the community, which include conventional and age-qualified neighborhoods.

With prices ranging from the $230s to $625,000, RiverLights will “offer a wide variety of products that will appeal to both young families and individuals who are just starting out their adult lives, all the way to folks on the other end of the spectrum who are trying to wind down a little bit and come and find a nice place to relax, and everywhere in between,” Henry said.

RiverLights officials are preparing for the community’s grand opening celebration Dec. 3, Henry said. The restaurant in the RiverLights River House, a building on the river within walking distance of Marina Village, is expected to be open by then, he said, adding that a lease for the space by a local popular eatery is expected to be finalized soon.

The Marina Village portion of the community, along with Ember Park, the River House, the marina, and the riverwalk are among the areas in RiverLights that are open to the public.

At full build-out, which could be complete in the next seven to 10 years, RiverLights could hold as many as 2,290 residential units, Henry said.

Newland announced seven local and regional builders for the conventional neighborhoods in February and the firm overseeing the age-qualified portions in June.

To see more RiverLights photos from a tour Thursday, check out the album posted to the Greater Wilmington Business Journal's Facebook page.