East & Mason Developers LLC, a subsidiary of Robuck Homes, Inc., announced Monday that it has closed on the purchase of 64 acres in the heart of the Masonboro Sound area in Wilmington.
"The owner plans to develop the property into a master-planned community called East & Mason, which will connect Masonboro Loop and Masonboro Sound roads," according to a news release.
A deed for the parcels at 7500 and 7420 Masonboro Sound Road shows a $6.6 million transaction between the Robuck Homes subsidiary and the sellers, members of the MacDonald and Harriss families.
The East & Mason community will contain 170 new homes, including single-family, traditional neighborhood design and active-adult homes, the release stated. A community clubhouse with a pool, multiple open spaces and pocket parks are also planned.
“Our vision is to create a place where families and active adults can live, work and play with great access to all that Wilmington has to offer. East & Mason will have distinctive architecture and diverse streetscapes that will provide a modern lifestyle atmosphere that brings people together,” said Chip Bishop, general manager of Robuck Homes, in the release.
Robuck Homes has been building in the Wilmington area for at least eight years.
Of the Masonboro Sound site, Bishop said, "We love to do infill locations. We've had a lot of success doing higher-end infill opportunities. The latest one we did in Raleigh [Oakdale at Mordecai] actually won the Best in American Living for the National Association of Home Builders [in 2017]."
Home prices at East & Mason are likely to start in the $300s and go up from there, Bishop said.
The community will also have a unique facet in its design.
"If someone was wanting to know what's going to be special or different about the community, we're really trying to focus on the remote-working experience because even before COVID, Wilmington had a large contingent of work-from-home employment. And so our home plans are designed around that," Bishop said. "It seems like there's a lot of people who live in Wilmington and work all over the country. . . Even with our amenity, we're going to have space built into the amenity for those who work from home but every once in a while need a conference area to have some sort of collaboration."
Most of the sites will be Robuck's, but there are going to be some retail home site sales or custom builder sites available, Bishop said.
A new 1.4-mile pedestrian and bike path along Masonboro Loop Road, projected to open in early 2022, is set to provide an option for East & Mason residents to travel to Parsley Elementary School (to be renamed Masonboro Elementary School) as well as the Masonboro Station and Masonboro Commons shopping centers.
Fonville Morisey Barefoot will begin marketing home sites in spring 2021 with lots expected to become available in the third quarter of 2021, the release stated. Residents are expected to begin moving into the community in early 2022.
For nearly a century, Robuck Homes has built homes in more than 63 communities in the Raleigh and coastal North Carolina areas, including Anchors Bend in New Hanover County and WyndWater in Hampstead.
