A building in midtown Wilmington that has been vacant for several years will soon serve a new purpose.

A restaurant owner bought the property, which used to be an urgent care facility, with plans to turn it into offices for the firm that manages his restaurants, as well as an advertising agency.

Larry Alderson, franchise owner of five Buffalo Wild Wings restaurants and bars, two in Wilmington, two in Myrtle Beach and one in Jacksonville, said he bought the building at 3710 Shipyard Boulevard from New Hanover Regional Medical Center in order to relocate Carolina Wings Management from its current address on Shipyard.

“It had been sitting there for a while, and we needed the space. We are growing and we’ve kind of outgrown our current offices [of 1,800 square feet],” Alderson said this week.

The management firm, which oversees the restaurants, has seven employees, he said.

Plan A Advertising, which counts Carolina Wings Management among its clients, is also growing and will use the other half of the nearly 5,600-square-foot building, Alderson said.

Wilmington-based Gaines & Associates Builders is the contractor completing the conversion, part of which requires tearing out stucco, and Mark Loudermilk of Becker Morgan Group, which has an office in the Port City, is the architect.  

“We’ll be redoing the outside of the building as well as the inside,” Alderson said.

Broker Bill Maus, one of the three founding members of Maus Warwick Matthews & Co., represented the hospital in the transaction while broker Patrick Riley, also of Maus Warwick Matthews & Co., represented Alderson, who did not disclose the sale price. New Hanover County property tax records include no sale price listing for the address, but its 2014 tax valuation for the land, a little more than an acre, and building was $863,500, the records say.

Alderson opened his first Buffalo Wild Wings in Wilmington off Van Campen Boulevard in 2001 before relocating the restaurant to Old Eastwood Road.

The Buffalo Wild Wings at 5533 Carolina Beach Road in the Village at Myrtle Grove shopping center will be remodeled in April, Alderson said. In 2011, he opened the Buffalo Wild Wings at 206 Old Eastwood Road, and he said he plans to open a new Buffalo Wild Wings in Porters Neck, in the Wal-Mart-anchored Bayshore Commons shopping center under construction at 8107 Market St.

Alderson said he hopes to move the management company from 3722 Shipyard Boulevard, where Plan A Advertising is also currently located, to 3710 Shipyard Boulevard in May.

“It was a well-built building. It just needs some updating,” Alderson said. “I think it will be nice when we’re finished with it and it will be a complement to the Shipyard Boulevard corridor.”