Market Overview
Brunswick County sits along North Carolina's southeastern coast, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the south and east, New Hanover County and the Cape Fear River to the northeast, Columbus County to the west, and the South Carolina state line at the southern tip. The county spans roughly 860 square miles of coastal plain, barrier islands, and Intracoastal Waterway frontage. Its population has grown from approximately 75,000 in 2010 to well over 150,000 today, a rate of growth that has consistently ranked it among the top ten fastest-growing counties in the eastern United States.
The growth engine here is not a single employer or military installation. It is demographic migration. Brunswick County is a premier retirement and relocation destination, attracting retirees from the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic who are drawn by mild winters, low property taxes relative to their home states, beach access, and a cost of living that remains well below the coastal metros they are leaving behind. This retirement wave has been building for two decades and shows no sign of slowing. The median age in Brunswick County is notably higher than the state average, reflecting this retiree-heavy in-migration pattern, and the spending profile of these residents drives demand for medical services, dining, personal services, and convenience retail in concentrations that exceed what the population figure alone would predict.
Leland is the fastest-growing municipality in the county and one of the fastest-growing towns in North Carolina. Located along the US-17 corridor just west of Wilmington across the Cape Fear River, Leland functions as a booming suburban community within the Wilmington MSA. Its population has roughly tripled in the past fifteen years, driven by new residential subdivisions, master-planned communities, and the simple economics of lower land costs and property taxes compared to New Hanover County immediately to the east. For commercial real estate, Leland represents the densest and most active submarket within Brunswick County, with the strongest retail tenant demand and the highest traffic counts.
The beach communities along the southern coast define the tourism economy. Oak Island, Sunset Beach, Ocean Isle Beach, and Holden Beach are barrier island communities that swell with seasonal visitors from Memorial Day through Labor Day and support a growing year-round permanent population of retirees and remote workers. These beach towns generate hospitality revenue, vacation rental income, and seasonal retail demand that creates a commercial property dynamic distinct from the inland growth corridors. The shoulder seasons have been lengthening as the permanent population grows, extending the viable operating window for restaurants, retail, and service businesses beyond the traditional summer peak.
Southport, situated at the mouth of the Cape Fear River, occupies a unique position in the county as a historic port town with a walkable downtown, an active waterfront, and a character-driven identity that attracts a different demographic than the master-planned subdivisions farther inland. Southport's commercial real estate market is defined by small-format retail, restaurants, professional offices, and tourism-oriented businesses that serve both the local population and the day-trip and weekend visitors who come for the town's charm, waterfront dining, and ferry access to Fort Fisher and the Bald Head Island ferry terminal.
The Duke Energy Brunswick Nuclear Plant near Southport is the largest single employer in the county outside of the service sector. The plant employs approximately 800 full-time workers and brings in additional contract workers during refueling outages, which occur on a regular multi-year cycle. These outage periods can temporarily increase local demand for extended-stay housing, restaurants, and personal services in the Southport and Supply areas. The plant's presence adds a stable, high-wage employment base to a county economy that is otherwise dominated by construction, healthcare, retail, and hospitality.
Healthcare infrastructure in Brunswick County has expanded rapidly to keep pace with the growing and aging population. Novant Health Brunswick Medical Center in Supply serves as the county's primary hospital facility, and satellite clinics, urgent care centers, and specialist practices have proliferated along the major corridors. The medical office segment has been one of the most active areas of commercial development in the county, driven by the demographic reality that a retiree-heavy population consumes healthcare services at rates significantly above the state average.
Brunswick County is part of the Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area, and its growth trajectory is inextricable from Wilmington's. As New Hanover County has become increasingly built out and expensive, development pressure has spilled westward and southward into Brunswick County. Buyers and renters who are priced out of Wilmington proper or who want newer construction and larger lots are settling in Leland, Bolivia, and the unincorporated areas along the US-17 corridor. This overflow dynamic has created a residential construction boom that shows no sign of abating and that generates constant follow-on demand for the commercial services, retail, and professional offices that new residents require.
Property Types in Brunswick County
Retail is the property type most directly driven by Brunswick County's explosive residential growth. Every new subdivision and master-planned community that delivers hundreds or thousands of rooftops creates immediate demand for grocery, pharmacy, quick-service restaurants, convenience stores, and personal services. Pad sites along US-17 through Leland have been absorbing rapidly, and national tenants that track residential permit data are actively seeking positions in this market. The challenge for retail developers and investors is timing: the rooftops are arriving on a predictable schedule, and the commercial operators that position early capture the spending power of a growing trade area before competition fills in. Shadow-anchored outparcels near grocery-anchored centers perform particularly well in this environment, as the daily-needs traffic generated by the anchor drives consistent foot traffic to adjacent restaurants and service tenants.
Multi-family development in Brunswick County has lagged behind the single-family residential boom, creating a supply gap that represents one of the clearest investment opportunities in the market. The county's housing growth has been overwhelmingly single-family oriented, with builders focused on the detached homes and townhomes that retirees and relocating families want. But the workers who staff the restaurants, healthcare facilities, retail stores, and construction sites that serve these residents also need housing, and the single-family price points have moved beyond what many of these workers can afford. This affordability gap has begun attracting multi-family developers who recognize the structural demand from the workforce that supports the county's growth. Properties that can deliver workforce-accessible rents in locations with reasonable commute times to the major employment corridors face favorable absorption conditions.
Hospitality and tourism properties are central to the coastal economy in Brunswick County. The barrier island beach communities support a mix of hotels, motels, vacation rental properties, and the management companies that service them. Seasonal occupancy during the summer months is strong, driven by family vacation traffic from the Piedmont, Charlotte metro, and out-of-state visitors. The growing permanent population has extended shoulder-season viability for hospitality operations, and properties in Southport and the mainland beach access corridors benefit from year-round demand generated by retirees hosting visiting family and friends. Extended-stay and boutique hospitality concepts have been gaining traction as the market matures beyond the traditional beach-motel model.
Medical office has been one of the strongest-performing commercial segments in Brunswick County, and the fundamentals suggest continued growth. The county's population skews older than the state average, and retirees consume physician visits, specialist referrals, diagnostic imaging, physical therapy, and outpatient procedures at rates that generate outsized demand for clinical space. Health systems and independent medical groups are expanding their footprints along the US-17 corridor and near the beach communities to capture the growing patient base. Purpose-built medical office with modern mechanical systems, ADA compliance, and adequate parking commands premium rents and attracts credit-quality healthcare tenants on longer lease terms than typical office or retail occupants.
Self-storage has emerged as a notable commercial property type in Brunswick County, driven by the same growth dynamics that fuel the broader market. In-migrants who are downsizing from larger homes in the Northeast often need storage during and after their transition. Seasonal residents who maintain homes elsewhere need somewhere to keep boats, recreational vehicles, and household goods. The construction boom generates demand for contractor storage. Purpose-built climate-controlled facilities along the major corridors have been absorbing well, and the market has not yet reached the oversupply condition that has affected self-storage in more mature metros.
Why Invest in Brunswick County Commercial Real Estate
The core investment thesis for Brunswick County is growth with structural tailwinds. The county's population growth is not driven by a single employer that could relocate or downsize. It is driven by a demographic shift that is deeply rooted in national trends: aging baby boomers and early-retirement Gen Xers moving to warm-weather, low-tax, beach-accessible locations. This migration pattern has been accelerating, not decelerating, and Brunswick County is one of its primary beneficiaries on the East Coast. Investors who position in the path of this growth are buying into a demand story that has years of runway remaining.
Property taxes in Brunswick County are meaningfully lower than in neighboring New Hanover County, and this differential is one of the key drivers of the westward development shift. For commercial property owners, lower tax rates translate directly to higher net operating income at equivalent gross rents, improving yield metrics across every property type. This tax advantage also makes Brunswick County locations competitive for tenants comparing occupancy costs between Wilmington and the surrounding counties, creating a pull factor that directs business formation and expansion toward Brunswick County sites.
The Wilmington MSA overflow dynamic provides a demand backstop that reduces risk for commercial investors. Even if Brunswick County's own internal growth were to moderate, the continued buildout of New Hanover County and the rising cost of land and construction there will continue to push residential and commercial development into Brunswick County. This overflow is structural, not cyclical, and it creates a floor under demand that does not exist in markets without an adjacent urban core generating spillover.
Beach tourism adds a revenue layer that most inland secondary markets cannot access. Properties that serve the seasonal visitor population benefit from a spending base that arrives annually and spends on dining, retail, recreation, and services at rates that significantly exceed the per-capita spending of the permanent population. For retail and hospitality investors, this tourism premium means that seasonal revenues can offset the leaner winter months and produce annual returns that outperform what the permanent population alone would support.
The retirement migration that drives Brunswick County's growth brings spending power that is disproportionate to the population count. Retirees relocating from the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic typically arrive with home sale proceeds, pension income, investment portfolios, and Social Security benefits that give them significant purchasing power. They spend on healthcare, dining out, home improvement, personal services, and recreation at rates that create outsized demand per household compared to working-age populations. This wealth transfer into Brunswick County supports commercial tenants across multiple categories and underpins rental rate stability for well-located properties.
New construction dominates the building stock in Brunswick County, which reduces the deferred maintenance risk that weighs on commercial investment in older markets. Many of the commercial properties available for investment are recently built or under construction, with modern systems, current code compliance, and warranty coverage still in effect. For investors accustomed to the capital expenditure burdens of aging commercial buildings in more established markets, the relative youth of Brunswick County's commercial inventory is a meaningful advantage in underwriting maintenance reserves and near-term capital needs.
The county's position within the Wilmington MSA provides access to the labor pool, supply chains, and professional services infrastructure of a mid-sized metro without the land costs and regulatory complexity of operating within Wilmington city limits. Commercial tenants in Brunswick County can draw employees from across the MSA, access port-related logistics through the Port of Wilmington, and utilize the professional services ecosystem that the broader metro supports, all while operating from locations with lower occupancy costs and less competitive site selection environments.
Key Areas & Corridors
Leland and the US-17/US-74-76 corridor is the commercial epicenter of Brunswick County. US-17 runs north-south through the county and serves as the primary connection to Wilmington, while US-74/76 provides east-west access from the coast toward the I-95 corridor and the interior of the state. The intersection of these routes in and around Leland has become the densest node of commercial activity in the county. National retailers, grocery anchors, restaurants, banks, and medical offices line the corridor, and new commercial development continues to fill in as residential subdivisions extend along both sides of the highway. Traffic counts through this corridor have increased substantially over the past decade, reflecting the population growth that is remaking this part of the county. For retail investors and tenant-rep clients, Leland along US-17 is the primary target area and the submarket with the strongest comparable data for underwriting.
Shallotte serves as the commercial hub for the southern portion of Brunswick County. Located at the intersection of US-17 and NC-130, Shallotte provides the retail, medical, and professional services infrastructure for the beach communities of Ocean Isle Beach, Sunset Beach, and Holden Beach, as well as the inland residential areas to the west. The town has a more established commercial base than Leland's newer development, with a mix of older strip retail and more recent construction along the US-17 bypass. Shallotte is the natural comparison market for investors evaluating opportunities in the southern half of the county, and its trade area benefits from the beach community populations that use Shallotte as their everyday services hub year-round.
Southport offers a commercial environment unlike anything else in Brunswick County. The town's historic downtown along Howe Street, Moore Street, and the waterfront features small-format retail, restaurants, galleries, and professional offices in a walkable setting that attracts both locals and visitors. Southport functions as a destination rather than a highway-corridor commercial market, and commercial properties here trade on character, foot traffic, and the tourism draw of the waterfront. The Bald Head Island ferry terminal in Southport brings a steady flow of day visitors and island property owners through the downtown. Commercial rents and property values in Southport reflect the premium that this unique positioning commands, and available inventory turns over quickly when it comes to market.
Oak Island is the largest of Brunswick County's barrier island communities and supports a year-round population that has been growing steadily as retirees choose it for permanent residence rather than seasonal use. Commercial activity on Oak Island is concentrated along the Yacht Drive and Long Beach Road corridors, with restaurants, beach supply stores, vacation rental offices, and neighborhood-serving retail making up the tenant mix. The causeway connecting Oak Island to the mainland funnels traffic through a limited number of commercial nodes, creating a captive trade area that benefits the properties positioned along these routes. For investors, Oak Island commercial properties offer the combination of tourism-season revenue and growing year-round demand that reflects the island's maturing permanent population.
Ocean Isle Beach and Sunset Beach anchor the southwestern corner of Brunswick County near the South Carolina border. These beach communities draw vacation traffic from Charlotte, the Piedmont, and out of state, and both have seen their permanent populations grow as retirees settle into the area full-time. Commercial development near these communities is primarily along the US-17 corridor and at the causeway access points, with restaurants, convenience retail, and vacation rental management offices serving a mix of seasonal visitors and year-round residents. The proximity to the Myrtle Beach market to the south creates some competitive overlap for tourism traffic, but the quieter, family-oriented character of these Brunswick County beaches supports a distinct and loyal visitor base.
Supply and Bolivia occupy the geographic center of the county along NC-211 and US-17. Novant Health Brunswick Medical Center is located in Supply, making this area the healthcare hub of the county and a concentration point for medical office, pharmacy, and outpatient services. Bolivia serves as the county seat and houses government offices and the judicial center, generating a small but steady stream of professional office demand from attorneys, bail bondsmen, title companies, and other government-adjacent services. The NC-211 corridor connecting Supply to Southport has seen increasing residential and commercial development as it functions as the primary route from the interior of the county to the coast.
The NC-211 corridor running from Supply to Southport is emerging as a significant commercial development axis in Brunswick County. As residential communities fill in along this route, the commercial development that follows rooftops is beginning to appear in the form of neighborhood retail, convenience stores, and service-oriented businesses. The corridor also provides the primary access to the St. James master-planned community, one of the largest and most established retirement communities in the county, which generates demand for dining, medical, personal services, and recreation in the surrounding area. Investors tracking the path of residential growth in Brunswick County should monitor NC-211 as a corridor where commercial demand is building but supply has not yet caught up.
Transportation & Accessibility
Brunswick County's transportation network is defined by a handful of primary routes that carry the vast majority of commercial and commuter traffic. US-17 is the spine of the county, running north-south from the Wilmington area through Leland, down through Shallotte, and continuing toward the South Carolina border. This is the highest-volume corridor and the primary route for residents commuting to jobs in Wilmington, for shoppers accessing commercial services, and for visitors traveling to and from the beach communities. US-17 traffic has increased substantially over the past decade, and congestion during peak hours through Leland has become a defining characteristic of the corridor, one that simultaneously indicates strong commercial demand and creates challenges for commuters.
US-74/76 provides east-west connectivity, running from Wilmington westward through Brunswick County toward Whiteville, Lumberton, and eventually the I-95 corridor. This route is the primary connection for Brunswick County residents and businesses that need access to the interstate highway system and the broader logistics network it supports. The intersection of US-74/76 with US-17 in the Leland area is one of the most significant commercial nodes in the county.
NC-211 serves as the main route connecting the interior of Brunswick County to the coast, running from Supply through Southport. This corridor handles traffic between the commercial services hub in Supply and the growing coastal communities, and it has been the focus of road improvement projects as traffic volumes have increased with the county's population growth.
Wilmington International Airport, located in New Hanover County approximately 20 minutes from Leland, provides commercial air service connecting the region to major hubs including Charlotte, Atlanta, Philadelphia, New York, and Washington. For commercial real estate purposes, the proximity of a regional airport with expanding service supports the area's attractiveness to business relocations, out-of-state investors, and the retiree population that values convenient air travel to visit family in their former home markets.
The Port of Wilmington, while located in New Hanover County, influences the broader MSA commercial economy and creates logistics-related demand that extends into Brunswick County. Port-related warehousing, distribution, and support services have been expanding throughout the metro area as the port has grown its container and bulk cargo volumes, and some of that demand has spilled into Brunswick County sites where land costs and available parcels are more favorable than the increasingly built-out areas closer to the port itself.
Tenant Representation
Finding the right commercial space in Brunswick County requires understanding a market that is still being built. Unlike established metros where the inventory is largely known and turnover creates availability within a defined stock, Brunswick County's commercial landscape is changing month to month as new construction delivers and development plans advance. A business owner looking for retail space in Leland is often choosing between a recently delivered suite and one that will not be available for another six to twelve months in a project that is still under construction. This requires a different approach than searching for space in a stable, fully built market.
For businesses relocating to serve the growing Brunswick County population, site selection is critical because the trade areas are still forming. A restaurant that positions correctly along US-17 relative to the residential growth pattern captures a customer base that will double within a few years. One that positions a mile in the wrong direction may find itself outside the natural traffic flow as the commercial corridor takes shape. I help tenants evaluate not just the current state of a location but its trajectory, using residential permit data, development plans, and traffic projections to assess where a site will stand in three to five years, not just where it stands today.
Lease negotiations in a growth market carry their own dynamics. Landlords in Brunswick County are often developers who have just completed a project and are focused on lease-up, which can create favorable terms for tenants who commit early. But those same landlords may offer less flexibility on renewal terms because they expect market rents to increase as the surrounding area builds out. Understanding these dynamics and structuring leases that protect the tenant's economics through the growth cycle is a central part of what I do in tenant representation engagements here.
Investment Sales & Dispositions
The investment sales market in Brunswick County is shaped by the growth premium that buyers are willing to pay for assets positioned in the path of development. Stabilized retail properties along US-17 in Leland trade at cap rates that reflect the expectation of continued rent growth, and multi-tenant strip centers anchored by national credit tenants attract interest from regional and national investors who view the county's demographics as a long-duration demand story. For sellers, the timing of a disposition in a rapidly growing market requires careful analysis: selling too early leaves upside on the table as the trade area matures, but holding too long risks missing the window where buyers are paying a growth premium before the market stabilizes.
I work with investors on both sides of this equation. For buyers, I provide market-specific underwriting that accounts for the growth dynamics unique to Brunswick County, including the seasonal revenue patterns in beach-proximate properties, the impact of new construction on existing property performance, and the realistic absorption timelines for commercial space in a market where the tenant pipeline depends on continued residential delivery. For sellers, I position properties to capture the full value of the growth story by marketing to the buyer pools that understand and will pay for coastal North Carolina demographics.
Off-market transactions account for a meaningful share of commercial deals in Brunswick County. In a market where developers, landowners, and long-time property owners are not always actively marketing their assets, the ability to identify and approach opportunities before they hit the brokerage platforms is a significant advantage. My network across eastern North Carolina includes relationships with property owners, developers, and local professionals who are often the first to know when a commercial asset or development site may be available, and this access matters in a competitive market where listed inventory can attract multiple offers quickly.
Working with Sebastian in Brunswick County
Brunswick County is a growth market, and growth markets reward preparation more than they reward speed. The investors who build wealth here are the ones who understand where the residential buildout is heading, which corridors will capture the commercial development that follows, and what the tenant demand profile will look like in three to five years as the population matures. That forward-looking analysis is the foundation of how I serve clients in this market.
The coastal dynamics in Brunswick County also require nuance that generic commercial brokerage cannot provide. Seasonal revenue patterns, flood zone considerations, CAMA permitting requirements, and the distinct character differences between the beach communities, the inland growth corridors, and the historic markets like Southport all influence how a property should be evaluated and marketed. A multi-family investor looking at Leland is operating in a fundamentally different submarket than a restaurant operator evaluating a beachfront location on Oak Island, even though both are in the same county. I bring the local knowledge to help each client navigate their specific situation.
For investors approaching Brunswick County from outside the region, I provide the ground-level perspective that due diligence reports and market studies cannot fully capture. I know which corridors are seeing the fastest commercial lease-up, where the next round of residential permits has been filed, which developers are actively seeking commercial tenants for projects under construction, and where infrastructure improvements are planned that will shift traffic patterns and commercial viability. This information matters because it influences not just what a property is worth today but what it will be worth when you are ready to refinance or sell.
My financial analysis approach is particularly relevant in a growth market like Brunswick County, where the temptation to project aggressive rent growth into underwriting models can lead to overpaying. I build conservative base cases that account for the real timelines of commercial absorption in a developing market, the potential impact of new competitive supply on existing properties, and the seasonal variability that affects revenue for beach-proximate assets. This discipline helps my clients avoid the common mistake of buying the growth story at a price that only works if every optimistic assumption plays out perfectly.
Whether you are evaluating a retail acquisition in Leland, exploring land for a medical office development in Supply, looking for hospitality investment near the beach communities, or seeking commercial space for a business that serves Brunswick County's growing population, I would welcome the conversation. You can reach me directly at (919) 797-5900 or sebastian@mullarkeycre.com. You can also schedule a call at a time that works for you through my booking page.