Big time in the Port City.

• Author: Maurer, Kevin
• Position: STATEWIDE: East

Wilmington developers are hoping chef Vivian Howard's star power will anchor development of a neglected part of the Port City's downtown. "Wilmington hasn't had a warehouse district like Raleigh or Asheville," says Terry Espy, president of MoMentum Cos. The local real-estate company is developing the property with owner Tribute Investment & Development, also based in Wilmington. "We're carefully putting the puzzle together."

The district is wedged between the state port and downtown restaurants and bars near the Cape Fear River. South Front Apartments, a former public-housing project that was renovated in 2012, and the Satellite Bar, a pub that opened in 2009, were the first signs of development in the area.

Howard's new restaurant, Benny's Big Time Pizzeria, is slated to open in the fall, eventually followed by other restaurants, offices and about 27,000 square feet of retail space. Howard, best known for her Chef & the Farmer restaurant in Kinston, will focus on Italian staples at the 3,700-square-foot site. She and husband Ben Knight started the Kinston restaurant in 2006, leading to A Chef's Life, a national public-television documentary series focused on the business that is now in its fifth season. In 2013, they opened the Boiler Room, an oyster bar in downtown Kinston.

"We were really lucky when we contacted Ben and Vivian," Espy says. "They wanted to go into an emerging environment." Wilmington is 90 miles south of Kinston.

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