Historic downtown Wilmington lot could see new development

A chunk of land that's seen its share of history in the heart of Wilmington's downtown district could be destined for new apartments.

Now a gravel parking lot, the land at 115 and 117 S. Water St. once housed an 1840s-era ice house. Structures built on the lot over the years have served as a fish and oyster market and as a beloved bar, which sat on the site until its demolition in 2004.

Since then, various developers have floated plans to bring condos, apartments, and even a boutique hotel to the site. None of their proposals came to fruition, and one even yielded a lawsuit against the city of Wilmington and its Historic Preservation Commission.

But there's now a new proposal in the works to bring more than 60 apartments to the site. Wilmington's Historic Preservation Commission approved project plans in a 4-2 vote at its meeting last week.

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The seven-member board reviews the design of changes to buildings located in Wilmington's historic districts in order to "promote, enhance and preserve" their character, according to the commission's website.

The approval from the commission gives developers a green light to move forward with more detailed project design and engineering work, said Clark Hipp, owner of Hipp Architecture and Development. Hipp's company designed the project and represented developers before the Historic Preservation Commission.

Plans for the six-story apartment and retail project feature 61 apartments -- a mix of one- and two-bedrooms -- on floors three through six, according to Hipp.

The ground floor will house offices and a mail room for the apartments above along with roughly 900 square feet for retail. The first and second floors will serve as parking for the complex with 49 resident parking spots.

The building's design tries to minimize its size by pushing back the exterior walls of its top floor. That creates terraces for residents and aims to make the building seem less massive when viewed from street level.

“That was a straight nod to try to address the concerns of taller, massive buildings in the downtown,” Hipp said.

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Still, some members of the Historic Preservation Commission expressed concerns about the size and scale of the building and how it fits into its surroundings. By right, developers are allowed to build up to the maximum height of the tallest building approved in the district, per state statute.

The surrounding buildings are notably shorter than the proposed 60-foot-tall structure. Buildings located in the blocks that encircle the site range in height from one to three stories.

Plans for the building's exterior draw upon elements from other structures in the downtown district. Features include wood framing, detailed brickwork, paint colors, and two types of balconies.

A storied history

The recorded history of the lots at 115 and 117 S. Water St. stretches back more than 175 years to the 1840s when a Baptist minister constructed a building on the site. The building became Wilmington's Ice House -- a structure than included a wooden ice-way that lead down to the riverfront.

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The building served as an ice house until the late 1880s or early 1890s when it became a fish and oyster market and wholesale business. The building was damaged by a fire in the 1940s.

In 1990, a two-story brick structure on the site became a series of shops and a bar and restaurant, which served as a shooting location for the TV show "Dawson's Creek" during the 1990s.

The buildings were razed in a controversial demolition in 2004 to make way for condos.

But the five-story condo project was never built. The city of Wilmington's Historic Preservation Commission denied developers' plans for the project and an appeal to the city's Board of Adjustment affirmed their ruling.

The developers sued the city of Wilmington and both boards in 2005, pursuing the lawsuit even after the land had been sold to new owners.

A judge ruled in the developer's favor, saying the city's Historic Preservation Commission can't deny a project just because it's more massive than other buildings in the immediate area. Instead, the judge ruled, that the commission must look at the entire downtown historic district.

Since then, there have been other plans brought forward that have received approval from the Historic Preservation Commission, but none have come to fruition.

Hipp said he believes site-specific challenges and the type of development pursued have hampered previous efforts.

For one, the soil conditions on the site aren't good. Much of the land that sits between Front Street and the Cape Fear River is infilled from the shipping and maritime industries that once used the area.

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“A lot of that soil has just been backfilled over the years, so the soils are very poor,” Hipp said. “The soil conditions are so bad, that the foundations are very expensive.”

Instead of installing a typical "shallow" foundation that's two to four feet into the ground, developers could be looking at driving pilings much deeper -- between 45 and 50 feet into the earth -- to support the building, Hipp said.

Previous development proposals, according to Hipp, also didn't maximize the property's potential density, so plans didn't always make financial sense.

"They just couldn't get enough units to make the project work,” he said.

Since this project only includes rentals instead of for-sale properties, Hipp said the developers are focused on a long-term return on investment that stretches 15 to 20 years into the future.

As more apartments are built downtown, Hipp said he's happy to see more infill development in the increasingly residential district.

“I’m very pleased to see infill development like this happening," he said, "because Wilmington sorely needs to see these types of vacant, empty lots developed into useful, productive development.”

There are approximately five to six more months of design work as plans start working their way through the city's technical review process, according to Hipp.

Reporter Emma Dill can be reached at 910-343-2096 or edill@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Downtown Wilmington could see new apartments on ice house site