Contender America: Reaching Deep Into North Carolina’s Brunswick, Lee and Pitt Counties

A commonly coined phrase in community planning and development is to “follow the moving vans.” It’s true. As Contender continues to reach farther across the South Carolina borders into adjoining states, North Carolina is on fire! No, not literally. Let’s just say, moving vans are unloading at a rapid pace across the Tar Heel State. A national leader in population and job growth, North Carolina’s continued trajectory is growth, growth, and more growth.

Contender’s Raleigh Division President, Paul Luck, recently told Triangle Business Journal, “If you follow the U-Hauls, you see where the migration patterns are going. And with the migration coming […] into the Carolinas, you get a feel for what the growth patterns are going to be and who the arrivals are.”  TBJ, January 2025.

Statistics show new residents, many of whom are retirees or soon-to-be-retirees, hail primarily from states in the northeast region — New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio — oftentimes to escape the harsh winters and enjoy the milder climate coupled with the luxury of the southeast coastal way of life.

As migratory patterns shift across the U.S., Contender focuses on communities of all sizes – depending on the existing infrastructure, the economic growth patterns, and, of course, the residential needs as the market shifts. Two projects, Adams Village in Lee County, and Regency in Pitt County, have planned communities with under 300 finished lots each. Midtown Village, also in Lee County, is a bit larger with a mix of single family homes and townhomes for a total of 727 residential lots. Then, there’s Midway Landing in Brunswick County, a resort style master-planned community of 3,600 homes and a mixed use component. With other projects slated for Forsythe, Franklin, Hartnett, Hoke and Johnston counties, Contender is amassing an ever-growing footprint in the state.