Brooklyn Arts District · Wilmington, NC
817 N. 4th Street
817 N. 4th Street comprises ±0.81 acres adjacent to the City Block Apartments community on the North 4th Street corridor, one of the few remaining privately owned sizable development parcels in the Central Business District.
CBD zoning provides exceptional dimensional flexibility, with no residential density cap and no minimum lot area, supporting multifamily, mixed-use, hospitality, office, and retail development with generous height allowances, in the heart of the Brooklyn Arts District, downtown Wilmington’s rapidly transforming North 4th Street corridor.
High-density, mixed-use zoning by right.
CBD, the Central Business District, is intended for high-density commercial, office, service, and residential use.
Property summary
| Address | 817 N 4th Street, Wilmington, NC 28401 |
| Offering price | $2,500,000 · $71.26/SF |
| Land area | ±0.81 AC · ±35,083 SF per ALTA survey |
| Parcel ID | R04813-001-021-000 |
| Legal description | Parcel A-2, Block 278, Wilmington Recombination · Map Book 67, Page 177 |
| Zoning | CBD (Central Business District) |
| Current use | Vacant land; NHC land use 958 (unused land) |
| Flood zone | Zone X, not a special flood hazard area (FEMA FIRM 3720311800L, rev. 8/28/2018) |
| Frontage | N 4th Street, on the Brooklyn Arts Social District corridor |
Development standards (CBD)
| Residential density | No cap; no maximum units per acre |
| Minimum lot area | None · minimum lot width 20′ |
| Setback | 5′ maximum front & side-street (urban build-to); interior & rear minimums apply |
| Ground floor | 13′ minimum height |
| By-right height | 150′ western portion · 60′ N 4th frontage (see chart) |
Building height allowances
The parcel straddles two CBD height districts
Minimum heights 36′ (west) and 24′ (frontage). In the district fronting N 4th Street, construction above the by-right height must be set back at least 8′ from any facade fronting a right-of-way (CBD Height Map, Figure 4). District boundary per the City of Wilmington CBD Height Map; confirm the split line and conditions with City Planning.
Permitted uses
By right (P), subject to applicable use-specific standards in LDC Article 3
With conditions (C)
Abbreviated from LDC Table 18-42 and Table 18-43.4; height districts per the City of Wilmington CBD Height Map (Figure 4). Buyer to verify all standards, use conditions, and the height-district boundary with City of Wilmington Planning.
Previously designed as City Block Apartments II.
The site carries a 15-sheet civil design set (Rev. 3, November 2019) engineered by Paramounte Engineering and carried through three City of Wilmington Technical Review Committee submittals as City Block Apartments II, the planned second phase of the adjacent community.
The 2019 plan proposed 56 units under that era’s 80-unit cap; today’s LDC imposes no density cap in CBD. Figures per the final Rev. 3 site plan and November 2019 architectural elevations; note the civil data table carries an unrevised earlier 5-story figure. The set is stamped “Final Design – Not Released for Construction” and evidences no City approvals or permits; buyer to verify current TRC status, code compliance, and utility capacity. Full set available in the deal room.
Utility providers identified in the TRC civil plan set
| Water & sewer | Cape Fear Public Utility Authority |
| Design demand | 22,400 GPD water · 13,440 GPD sewer (calculated flows; no allocation evidenced) |
| Electric | Duke Energy |
| Natural gas | Piedmont Natural Gas |
| Telephone / fiber | AT&T |
| Cable / internet | Spectrum |
Within walking distance of downtown’s employment and dining core.
Walk times approximate. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors · © CARTO.
Wilmington’s only social district.
The Brooklyn Arts Social District, Wilmington’s first and only, is approved and operating. It spans roughly ten blocks of the N 4th Street corridor from Walnut Street to N Front Street, running along the site’s own frontage, and lets patrons carry beverages between licensed venues.
Approved September 2025; expanded by City Council in April 2026 to every Saturday, noon–5 p.m. The corridor’s existing operators (The Eagle’s Dare, Brooklyn Café, Goat & Compass) anchor a functioning district, supportive of ground-floor retail, restaurant, and hospitality concepts.
Comparable land sales.
Source: FlexMLS, Moody's CRE, New Hanover County tax records. 11 closed CBD land sales ≥ $1M, June 2021 – April 2026. Bars scaled to $/SF of land. Tap a dot for sale details.
Wilmington: an evolving city.
Wilmington is a vibrant coastal city in North Carolina and a significant urban center in the state, with its expansion showing no signs of abating. The Wilmington Metropolitan Area is powered by diverse employment opportunities and has become the central maritime, tourism, and film production hub of the region. While Wilmington is renowned for its historical importance in maritime trade, industries such as film production, healthcare, and technology have bolstered the local economy.
Growth roughly 3–5× the national pace.
Over the past decade Wilmington’s population grew 27.4% (vs. 5.8% nationally) and employment grew 29.4% (vs. 10.4%), and every property type CBD zoning permits shows tight fundamentals.
Ten-year growth vs. the United States
Percent growth, 2016–2026
The 2023–24 apartment supply wave has crested
Peak of the supply wave → today
Renters absorbed 3,052 units in the past 12 months while the construction pipeline thinned; the window for the next project is opening. 4 & 5 Star units captured ~70% of that absorption, roughly matching their share of new deliveries.
Source: CoStar Group market and submarket reports, August 2026 (trailing 12 months / current quarter), licensed to Cadence Realty Corp. See the full reports, including complete data and forecasts, in the deal room.
What HVS found downtown.
Two 2025 studies by HVS, a global hospitality consulting firm, quantified downtown Wilmington’s momentum and confirmed a documented supply gap in upscale lodging.
“…we have confirmed the need for a new hotel that not only captures the vibrancy of the city as it is today, [but can] also support its future growth.”
HVS Market Study, Proposed Wilmington Convention Center Hotel, March 17, 2025
Convention center attendance at a five-year high
Wilmington Convention Center attendees, fiscal years reviewed by HVS
100 events across 220 event days in FY2024; HVS projects a stabilized 128,800 attendee days per year.
Greenfield Lake Amphitheater is booming
Tickets sold per year
*2024 tickets through August, already ahead of full-year 2023. Event days grew from 22 (2021) to 58 (2024). Wilmington now supports two thriving Live Nation venues; HVS projects stabilized attendance of 172,500 at Live Oak Bank Pavilion and 60,500 at Greenfield Lake, 233,000 combined.
Hotel room nights generated by three venues alone
Stabilized-year projections totaling ~72,900 room nights, about 200 occupied rooms per night, annualized
Source: HVS Market Study (Proposed Wilmington Convention Center Hotel) and HVS Tourism & Economic Impact Study, both March 17, 2025, the latter prepared with Wilmington Downtown Inc. Stabilized figures are HVS mid-point projections. Studies available in the deal room.
Wilmington is full of diverse entertainment, shopping, and dining options. Within the region, you can watch basketball, baseball, hockey, and soccer; enjoy award-winning plays and museums; partake in wine, local distilleries, and craft beer; see concerts and symphonies; dine at food trucks or fine restaurants; shop major retailers or small boutiques; walk the historic downtown riverwalk or Battleship North Carolina; and spend a day in the sun on the beach, intracoastal waterway, or river. Signature events like the N.C. Azalea Festival each spring and Riverfest each October fill downtown streets year after year.
Venue photos: Live Nation (livenation.com).
Twenty minutes to Wrightsville Beach.
Wrightsville Beach is roughly nine miles east of the site, named North Carolina’s best beach and one of the coastal draws behind Wilmington’s year-round tourism and residential demand.
A downtown people vote for.
National outlets keep ranking the Wilmington area’s riverfront, beaches, and restaurants among the country’s best.
Public and private capital, blocks away.
A wave of completed and advancing projects is renewing the blocks between the site and the riverfront core.
Recent expansions and announcements.
The local government's efforts to diversify its economy have proven effective. Wilmington continues to benefit from its status as a low-cost regional fintech hub, and startups and established banking and professional services firms have already committed to creating more jobs for local talent. Recent years have also seen an influx in industrial and logistics development to capitalize on economic opportunity around the Port of Wilmington and Foreign-Trade Zone #214.
*These numbers represent the latest estimates provided by Wilmington Business Development.
Wilmington is connected by U.S. Highway 17 (US-17), which spans north–south across the southeastern United States. Ongoing enhancements are aimed at expanding US-17 into a four-lane highway between Virginia and South Carolina, and the New Hanover County section of the US-17 bypass around Wilmington has been completed. Additional U.S. routes serving the region include US-74, US-76, US-117, and US-421; US-74 links Wilmington to Charlotte, while US-421 provides access to Boone. Interstate 40 (I-40) runs east–west across the country from Wilmington to Barstow, California, offering direct connections to Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Burlington, Asheville, and Greensboro.
The Port of Wilmington plays a crucial role in both the local and state economies. Strategically positioned on the East Coast, it is within 700 miles of over 70% of the U.S. industrial base. Managed by the North Carolina State Ports Authority, the port features terminal facilities for container, bulk breakbulk, and ro-ro operations, and is one of the few South Atlantic ports with ample berths and storage areas available for containers and cargo.
Key contacts for your due diligence.
The people and records a development team will want first, including the city planner who covers the CBD and the engineer of record on the site’s prior design.
Request access to the deal room.
Information provided is used solely to grant deal room access and respond to inquiries regarding this property.
Commercial broker, Cadence Realty Corp. Contact for deal room access, site visits, or questions about the offering.
Call Will