The Week in Review
.....your Wilmington Connection
May 11, 2008
We wish all the Mothers a Happy and Healthy Mother's Day From all of us
The big house
What has the floor space of a shopping center, is more than twice as tall as the PPD building and costs nearly as much as the U.S.S. North CarolinaForbes. Mukesh Ambani, the fifth richest man in the world, his wife Nita and their three children will live in the 400,000-square-foot, 27-story home with nine elevators, a ballroom and an ice room where guests can escape the heat of Mumbai (once called Bombay) and "be dusted by man-made snow flurries," Matt Woolsey wrote in Forbes. Cost: $2 billion, with a B - which equals 2,000 $1 million houses nuclear submarine? Why, a house for a petrochemical mogul in Mumbai, India. The world's largest and most expensive home will be completed in January.
Plans for Marina Project Withdrawn.
The contentious and convoluted project goes back until at least 1971, when Homer Ward received a special use permit for a marina project on Burnett Road near the Intracoastal Waterway.
Tim Ward, who now owns the property, wants to amend that permit and expand the scope of the project. His plans for the Carolina Marina & Yacht Club include about 200 dry-stack boat slips, fueling services, a club house and a restaurant.
His problem is that David Ward, a distant cousin who owns property next door, has tried to stop the project at every opportunity.
He says the large marina and dry-storage facility would negatively affect the residential neighborhood, plus it could cause pollution in an area teeming with wildlife.
Before Tim Ward's permit modification request could be heard by the commissioners Monday, his attorney asked the commissioners to send the matter back to the planning board.
New Hanover to break ground at treatment plant
The New Hanover County Board of Commissioners will officially break ground on the county's new 6 million gallon per day water treatment plant and well field project at 10 a.m. on Monday.
The $48 million project is a state-of-the-art treatment facility, using membrane technology or "nano-filtration" to treat the water by pumping it through extremely fine plastic membranes. The technology can be up-fitted in the future with "reverse osmosis," if necessary, to filter out salt.
The newly formed Cape Fear Public Utility Authority will assume responsibility for completing this project after July 1. The treatment plant is expected to be completed in September 2009.
All five county commissioners and other officials will be on hand for the groundbreaking. The event will be held at a neighboring subdivision, Garlington Heights, currently under construction in the West Bay Estates area of northern New Hanover County. The new subdivision directly overlooks the water treatment plant.
Bush's attempt at helping the Housing Market
The Bush Administration, has stepped forward and pro-actively implemented workouts to help homeowners avoid foreclosure, but there is still more work to do. With more subprime loan interest rate resets expected, Bernardi urged the industry to have "a strong and effective response that will quickly help to stabilize housing prices." Yesterday, the HOPE NOW Alliance announced that mortgage servicers have provided nearly 1.4 million loan workouts since July 2007 for homeowners with prime and subprime mortgages. This includes 503,000 homeowners in the first quarter of 2008.
"I believe that Congress and the Administration can forge a strong working partnership on housing. There is some common ground which should be explored and extended. I will continue to try to convince our lawmakers that we need wisdom, not over-reaction.
Universal Healthcare of Brunswick Breaks Ground
Sunday, May 4th at 2:00pm a group gathered on Old Ocean Highway to break ground for the latest development in Brunswick county health care. Don Beaver, Owner, Carol Prater-Webb, VP of Operations, COO Vickie Carroll-Beaver, Representative Dewey Hill and Western Regional Director of Operations Alan Beaver broke ground on what will be central Brunswick County's newest skilled rehab and nursing center. Other company officials include Maria Yane, Regional Clinical Nurse Consultant, Terri Gibson, Corporate Director of Marketing,, Architect David Polston and Becky Gibbons, CFO. The location of this premier living center is 1008 Old Ocean Highway close to Brunswick County Academy. This facility will be owned and operated by Choice Health Management based in Conover, NC. Choice currently operates 19 facilities of which all but two are in NC.
.......until next Week in the Week in Review
Tina
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