WILMINGTON — What was envisioned to be a community gathering space for diners and music lovers alike is now on the market for sale.
READ MORE: Combined food hall and music venue slated to open in Greenfield Lake area by end of 2022
Raleigh businessman Jason Queen of Monarch Property Co. and Monarch Realty Co. purchased 1315 S. Fifth Ave., located near Greenfield Lake, for $430,000 in 2021 under Greenfield Group LLC. It’s currently listed by Intracoastal Realty for $2.37 million.
The property includes an almost 45,000-square-foot building, constructed in 1951. Formerly the National Linen Service, the business shuttered in the early 2000s and the property has been empty since.
In an interview with Port City Daily three years ago, Queen said his goal was to repurpose it as Seaboard Social Hall — to include a 13,000-square-foot, indoor-outdoor food court and 16,000-square-foot music venue. He hoped to have a late 2022 or early 2023 opening.
But by July this year, the property went on the market, listed originally for $2.63 million; it had a $265,000 price decrease in the last 40 days.
Queen did not answer PCD’s request by press to chat about the listing and whether Seaboard Social Hall would still happen, even if elsewhere in Wilmington. The website appears to still be active, though without new information, and social media pages haven’t been updated since 2021.
A realtor, developer and entrepreneur, Queen is known for adaptive reuse of industrial buildings. In 2018, he opened downtown Raleigh’s Transfer Food Hall in what was once a warehouse servicing buses for Carolina Coach Company. In 2022, a 4,000-square-foot coworking space, The Work Hall, was added.
The National Linen Building in Wilmington once served as an industrial dry-cleaning business, servicing linens from hotels, restaurants, hospitals and other campuses. Queen had to go through the EPA’s Brownfields Program, which helps assess and clean potentially contaminated properties (the linen service used powerful cleaning solvents), for it to be sustainably reused and renovated.
At the time, Queen imagined the food court would include upward of 12 vendors and contain a makers’ retail space. Plans involved an onsite 6,500-square-foot commissary bakery and kitchen for products to be made or rented out for ghost kitchens.
Queen planned to utilize the rest of the property as a 1,200-person music hall, comparable to the Fillmore in Charlotte or Orange Peel in Asheville, he noted. The goal was to bring in big name acts, including both music and comedy, while also supporting local entertainers.
The business plan was expected to create around 100 jobs.
At the beginning of 2023, Queen told the StarNews Seaboard Social Hall construction would be “starting soon.”
While the project went before the city’s technical review committee in 2021, PCD asked the city about permitting, site plans and the last meeting it had regarding Seaboard Social Hall. An answer was not received by press but will be updated upon response.
The building doesn’t appear to have much work done to it from the outside. However, its real estate listing indicates the “interior has been partially demoed and has been opened up.” Zoned urban mixed-use, the property would allow for both commercial and residential uses.
New Hanover County property records denote 1315 S. Fifth Avenue as a D-grade, which indicates disrepair, requiring extensive repairs or renovations. Its land is valued at $120,500 and the building at a little more than $1 million.
The property is surrounded by homes in the Greenfield Lake area, as well as businesses, including blues bar The Rusty Nail, located across the street. Four blocks from the South Front District, the property kitty-corners South Fifth Avenue, with 250 feet of frontage, and Martin Street, with 330 feet of frontage. There is also “ample parking,” should the building be upfitted “for retail, office space, mixed use, multifamily or a combination” of various services, the listing details.
Intracoastal’s listing refers to the location as an “opportunity zone” and adds the seller has “holding in the area” and is open to “expanding the availability of additional land.”
Property records also indicate the North Carolina Department of Transportation made a $14,500 purchase at 1315 S. Fifth Ave. from Greenfield Group LLC a few weeks ago on Dec. 3. According to NCDOT spokesperson Lauren Haviland, it was for a “small permanent utility easement” for the proposed Wilmington Beltline improvement project in New Hanover and Brunswick counties.
Tips or comments? Email info@portcitydaliy.com
Want to read more from PCD? Subscribe now and then sign up for our morning newsletter, Wilmington Wire, and get the headlines delivered to your inbox every morning.
