Did you take notice of the press release earlier this month about a water park coming to the Outer Banks? The plans consist of the construction of an 80 acre park about 2 miles north of the Wright Memorial Bridge. The park is supposed to represent an Outer Banks historical theme with lighthouses, pirates and planes.
The park will have a multitude of water slides and a section dedicated to just children of over 2 acres. There is also plans for a FlowRider, wave pool and adventure lagoon. Specialty restaurants and private eating and gather areas will be offered on what looks to be an upscale family amenity that the Outer Banks is very short on right now.
The big point of discussion on this park is the developers are proposing to limit the number of people that they will allow in per day and they will not be allowing the general public to come into the park. The plan is that there is a limit of 4000-5000 guests each day (much lower than comparably sized water parks) to insure guest’s experience. Locals in Currituck and Dare County will be permitted to purchase admission at any time, but there will be no local advertising and the developers claim they will not be permitting folks from Chesapeake or surrounding areas that want to just make a day trip to the water park.
This park is set to break ground in the next 30 days and is expected to be finished sometime before the summer of 2017.
How will this affect our real estate market? It’s difficult to say exactly what effects the park will have on our overall real estate market. We do know that the park has the potential to boost rents as the only guests admitted will need to be renting from a select rental agency that is a “partner” in the water park. No, not all rental companies will be partners and thus there may be a residual effect on rentals for those houses with agencies that are exclusive partners. At this time it looks like about half of the local agencies will be participating in their partner program. In turn this could cause better rents and better rents always mean more value. The park will also mean more jobs for the locals in the surrounding areas which is always a plus. These jobs might help stimulate what has been a stagnant real estate market of lower mainland Currituck. The homes in this area were the hardest hit after the recession and are still struggling to regain value. Land prices around the surrounding area might rise slightly by the number of new people visiting the park. Surrounding business could also have increased numbers.
It is really too soon to know what effects that the proposed park may have on our economy, but I tend to believe that construction of such a large project will definitely bring positive effects. Only time will tell and with any luck the wave pool will actually produce a ride able wave for the locals on flat days.
For more insights about the Outer Banks and surrounding area please feel free to contact Ken or Pete with Best Buy OBX of Outer Banks Blue.
Ken Baittinger
Ken (252) 305-5255
ken@outerbanksblue.com
or
Pete Salitore
Pete (252) 202-4868
pete@outerbanksblue.com
