Evolving Wilmington restaurant district with historic roots could grow again
Once undesirable, Wilmington’s South Front District is continuing to evolve and is set to grow again.
South Front developer Tribute Companies is moving to close part of adjacent Willard Street to construct a new parking lot. The move will bring 51 more parking spaces to a district that’s seen a growing number of businesses in recent years.
Development momentum started in the area, which is sandwiched between Wilmington’s downtown and Sunset Park neighborhoods, around 10 years ago when Tribute opened South Front Apartments to renters. The complex’s buildings previously served as public housing community Nesbitt Court, which was condemned in 2007.
South Front, Satellite Bar and The Harp were some of the earliest businesses in the area. Satellite Bar opened in 2010 in the spot of a longtime neighborhood grocery store.
But in the past decade, the area has seen a flood of new businesses. In 2017, Tribute Companies started bringing the second phase of the district online. The company converted the former Block Shirt Factory into apartments and restaurant space for Benny’s Big Time Pizzeria.
At one time, the site’s shirt factory was one of the South’s largest manufacturers of shirts, producing more than 24,000 shirts a week in the building that stretched from Greenfield to Willard Street. The area is now home to Mariposa Tapas Bar, several residential homes along with wine bar Second Glass, True Blue Butcher and Barrel and brewery New Anthem Beer Project.
Tribute Companies has new plans for Willard Street. The developer is asking the city of Wilmington to close the street’s 200 block – its eastern edge that runs from Burnette Boulevard to the intersection of Willard and S. Second Street. In its place, they plan to add 51 new parking spots.
The application includes analysis from traffic engineers hired by Tribute Properties. The report’s findings showed closing the road wouldn’t significantly impact the area’s street grid. It also argued closing the road would improve traffic safety by eliminating a low-sight turn onto U.S. 421 for drivers.
“Willard Street is uniquely unimportant to the grid, connecting only a few nearby streets,” Molly McDonough, Tribute’s director of marketing and communications wrote in an email to the StarNews. “It would not only provide additional parking for residents, guests, and visitors, but it would also remove a dangerous intersection from our community.”
McDonough underscored the hazards of the intersection between S. Third Street, which becomes Burnette Boulevard, and Willard Street because of the high-rate of speed of the cars traveling along S. Third Street and the way the street curves before it meets Willard Street. The sight distance at this intersection is 100 feet less than the N.C. Department of Transportation Driveway Manual required minimum, according to McDonough.
“The closure of the … intersection both addresses a safety issue and will help us support locally owned small businesses,” she wrote.
The request is scheduled to go before Wilmington’s Planning Commission next month. The closure also needs approval from the Wilmington City Council.
Reporter Emma Dill can be reached at edill@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Wilmington restaurant, bar district to grow again with street closure
