The Cape Fear chapter of Commercial Real Estate Women held its first-ever Awards of Excellence on Thursday at the Wilmington Convention Center.  

The awards, which were announced by Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo during the lunch event, recognized "excellence and leadership" in commercial real estate in the Cape Fear region.

“The Cape Fear region is experiencing tremendous growth in both its urban and suburban areas and the counties surrounding the city," said Cape Fear CREW President Connie Ronner of SunTrust. "Cape Fear CREW is thrilled with the response to its inaugural awards program, designed to bring together and recognize the best of the commercial real estate industry. We are also very excited to see the level of leadership and involvement of the women of Cape Fear CREW and the companies and organizations that were recognized this year.” 

The winners (pictured below) were:

Economic & Community Enhancement Award: The South Front Street district. "The South Front project transformed a vacant public housing project, Nesbitt Courts, into a successful 216-unit multi-family community closely followed with the conversion of the old Block Shirt Factory into a 54-unit urban loft-style apartment community," the release said. "The residential portion of South Front was followed by the involvement of MoMentum Companies to focus on the commercial aspect of the project, which included additional development and historic renovation and successful leasing to numerous restaurants and retailers."
 
Placemaking: Ogden Market Place, a 72,782-square-foot, Publix grocery store-anchored retail center developed, leased and managed by Halpern Enterprises. "The development involved preserving and relocating more than 40 live oak trees and successfully relocated the 200-year-old Ogden Oak," according to the release. 

Best Interior: The Nir Family YMCA on Market Street in Wilmington. "Its new interior space was designed to align with their mission. Social areas became a hub for interconnection, growing community and generational bonds," the release stated. "In the main corridors, there are linear elements that change colors reflecting speed of movement and help with way finding. A new two- story lobby was created to open up the old area, forming a new entrance and the old brick wall at the gym was punctured at the new openings to allow in natural light."
 
Creative Marketing: Promoting the expanded downtown trolley service. The downtown trolley is a free trolley circulating within a small footprint in downtown Wilmingotn's Central Business District area. "The project scope required creating a community stakeholder task force to determine the future needs for transportation to connect and support the growth within the downtown districts," according to the release. "To communicate the new routes, the Downtown Business Alliance (DBA) stepped forward to partner with WAVE in creating and funding a marketing plan and set of collateral for promoting the Downtown District Trolley route." 
 
Career Advancement for Women: The YWCA Lower Cape Fear. The organization "works to empower young women, eliminate barriers and provide resources that allow women to become full participants in the economic mainstream of our community through the New Choices Economic Empowerment program," the release stated. "The YWCA's Coastal Women's Ventures is a collaborative program with the Carolina Small Business Development Fund focused on creating and supporting small business opportunities for women entrepreneurs through business coaching, mentoring, small business education, and connecting participants to loan capital."

The previously announced individual honorees were Impact Award Winner Beth Pancoe and the Beth Quinn Excellence Award winner Dana Pellizzari.
 
The judges were Steve Yost, president of North Carolina’s Southeast Regional Economic Development Partnership; Dana Fisher, executive director of the North Brunswick Chamber of Commerce; Secretary for the NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources Susi Hamilton; and Erin Sterling Lewis, AIA principal in situ studio and immediate past president AIANC.