HHHunt increasing reach in N.C. with $74M project in Wilmington

A rendering of the Abberly Landing apartments HHHunt is planning in Wilmington, North Carolina. (City of Wilmington documents)

With its first project approvals in Wilmington, North Carolina, residential builder and developer HHHunt is going all in on the Cape Fear coast.

The real estate firm, which is heavily active in Richmond and splits its headquarters across offices in Virginia and North Carolina, announced it is expanding into the Wilmington market after securing approvals for Abberly Landing, a 253-unit apartment development in the city’s Ogden area.

Approved last week, Abberly Landing adds to another project HHHunt has in the pipeline: a 49-home subdivision called Fawn Valley in the Myrtle Grove area south of Wilmington, between the city and nearby Carolina Beach. Work on that project is underway.

The added market extends HHHunt’s reach from around Raleigh, where its North Carolina operations are based, to the southeastern part of the state known as the Cape Fear region. Its Wilmington activity will be managed out of its office in Cary, which is one of the company’s three headquarters along with its local office in Glen Allen and its original HQ in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Buck Hunt

Harry H. (“Buck”) Hunt IV, the company CEO and namesake and son of founder H.H. Hunt III, said the time is right for its move into Wilmington after previous attempts two decades ago.

He said company leadership selected Wilmington as its next expansion target over other markets considered in the Carolinas. The company’s also active in Georgia, Tennessee and Maryland, in addition to the Carolinas and Virginia.

“Looking at all the criteria and what fit for HHHunt, Wilmington was ultimately selected as the best market for us to expand into,” Buck Hunt said. “We’re very excited about it. It really does match HHHunt in a lot of ways and what markets work really well for us, from a multitude of product types, not just homebuilding.”

While the Fawn Valley subdivision received approval from New Hanover County commissioners last year, the Abberly Landing project was OK’d by Wilmington City Council against the advice of city staff, which considered the apartment project too high-density for the area and recommended denial, according to a Port City Daily report.

The 20-acre site, which was outside city limits, also was approved for annexation into the city. Hunt said Abberly Landing will be a $74 million project.

He said consideration was given to a commitment by the company that 10% of the apartments will be “workforce housing” with rents below the market rate. He said increasing availability of more affordable housing has been a priority in Wilmington, which he noted has been booming in growth.

“We had looked at Wilmington many years ago for multifamily, in the early to mid-2000s. We didn’t find the right opportunity at that time, but the market has grown so much in that time we feel real confident about the future of that market,” he said. “We expect to be there for the long term and do more neighborhoods for for-sale housing and more apartment communities.”

Work on the 49-lot Fawn Valley subdivision is underway. (Image courtesy HHHunt)

Founded in 1966, HHHunt has developed multiple master-planned communities in the Richmond area, including Wyndham, Wellesley and Twin Hickory in Henrico, the 1,000-home River Mill near Virginia Center Commons, and in Chesterfield, Charter Colony, which it’s expanding. It’s also developing The Aire at Westchester, a 2,200-home development beside Westchester Commons.

Hunt said the company brought in $460 million in revenue in 2024. Its staff count companywide is 463, a quarter of the roughly 2,000 employees it had before it sold its Spring Arbor Senior Living division and 24 assisted living and memory care communities to Foundry Commercial in 2022. About half of its employees are based in Richmond.

While the Spring Arbor sale reduced its staff count by roughly 75%, Hunt said the division had represented only about 25% of the company’s revenue. Unloading it has allowed for expansions to more markets and a return to the company’s initial focus on homebuilding and residential development, Hunt said.

“It’s given us a bit more focus and streamlined us and put us in businesses that just make more sense for us at this time,” he said. “It was a great business for a long time, but it changed quite a bit and now we feel more focused and back to our roots.”

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