A Year Before the Overpass: What Fall Looks Like Around Eastwood and Military Cutoff

About 75,000 vehicles pass through the intersection of Eastwood Road and Military Cutoff Road every day. The state expects that number to reach 100,000. WECT quoted NCDOT officials giving 2040 as the year, while NCDOT's own project page says 2045. That projected growth is the reason a roughly 30-foot-tall overpass is coming. For anyone in Covil Estates, this is the corner between home and Mayfaire, The Forum, Lumina Station, and the beach about a mile away.

As of this fall, the state has finished buying the property it needs. Construction doesn't start until late 2027. The plans are final, and no ground has been broken. Everything changing near the corner this season is an addition. A restaurant reopened on a parcel the state just took an easement on. A garden down the road is selling holiday tickets to pay for stormwater work. And a new mixed-use project is lining up its first tenants.

The Map Is Done

On September 23, WECT reported that NCDOT had filed at least 27 eminent domain lawsuits in New Hanover County Superior Court for project U-5710. The state deposited about $5.83 million in court toward an overpass budgeted at $81.4 million. Each deposit is the state's appraised value for the property rights it needs. The final amounts are left to a jury.

The filings reach well past the intersection. WECT's list includes:

• Homes on King Arthur Drive and Brigantine Drive
• HOA and condominium common areas in Mayfaire, Eastport, Leeward Village, Wrightsville Sound Village, 1430 Commonwealth, and Progress Point
• Commercial and office properties along both Eastwood and Military Cutoff
• CC Landfall parcels on Military Cutoff Road and Drysdale Drive
• Properties involving First Bank, Duke Energy, Airlie Professional Center, CenterPoint, and sites with Wendy's lease interests

Mostly, the state is acquiring strips of land and access rights, not whole properties. That means permanent rights-of-way, temporary construction easements, slope easements for grading, and utility or drainage easements. In some places it also includes limits on direct access to the new lanes and ramps. NCDOT's statement to WECT was direct: "No buildings are expected to be demolished as part of this project."

The largest deposits show where the state's footprint is heaviest:

Drysdale Drive comes up again in the design. The overpass will carry Eastwood Road over Military Cutoff, and left turns will move onto connector roads like Drysdale. The NCDOT project page lists the schedule as a Fall/Winter 2027 start and a Fall/Winter 2031 finish. WECT reported that residents and Wilmington officials pushed back on that four-year timeline. Critics noted that it overlaps NCDOT's replacement of the three bridges between Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach, about a mile and a half away. We covered the start of that bridge work in our Wrightsville Beach bridge post.

A Reopening on One of Those Parcels

The smallest item in that table points to a restaurant that just got a fresh start. The owners of Big Thai at 1319 Military Cutoff Road renovated the space, renamed it Chang Thai, and reopened in September in Landfall Shopping Center, according to an October 3 restaurant roundup in The News & Observer.

1319 Military Cutoff is one of the two addresses on the CC Landfall filing that drew a $332,475 deposit. So the owners put money into a renovation in the same season the state filed for property rights on the shopping center. That matches NCDOT's own description of the project: easements and access changes around businesses that keep operating, not a cleared corner. For Covil Estates neighbors, Landfall Shopping Center still has a Thai spot. It's just under a new name and in a remodeled room. If Landfall is part of your regular routine, our guide to everyday life in Landfall covers more of that side of Military Cutoff.

Down Airlie Road, the Holiday Tickets Pay for Stormwater

Airlie Gardens doesn't appear in the condemnation filings, though Airlie Professional Center does. Still, the garden's fall calendar is closely tied to what has been built around it. On its Enchanted Airlie page, Airlie explains that the holiday lights are its largest fundraiser of the year and have helped pay for its stormwater master plan. The garden calls itself "the last point of filtration for the Bradley Creek watershed." It also says development over the past 10 years has greatly affected the gardens, and that 2026 is a focus year for handling "the millions of gallons of stormwater that enter the gardens."

So a $35 carload ticket is also a contribution to the watershed that the busiest corner in town drains into. Here's the fall schedule in order, counted from today, October 12:

1. October 14, 9 a.m. Enchanted Airlie presale for Azalea, Magnolia, and Camellia members. Only memberships that were active on October 1 qualify.
2. October 16. The gardens close early for Oyster Roast setup. Last admission is 3:30 p.m., and everyone needs to be out by 4 p.m. The Oyster Roast runs 6 to 10 p.m. that evening, and both member and general admission tickets are listed as sold out.
3. October 21, 9 a.m. Presale for Family and Individual members.
4. October 28, 9 a.m. General public sale. Tickets are $35 per carload or $65 per XL van, and you buy one ticket per vehicle. Every ticket must be bought in advance, and walk-ins and bicycles aren't allowed.
5. November 27 and 28, then December 1 through 21. Enchanted Airlie runs nightly with four entry windows: 5:30, 6:30, 7:30, and 8:30 p.m.

Airlie says to buy only through its official ticket provider. The ticket link on its page was still labeled 2025 when we checked, so it makes sense to start from the Enchanted Airlie page itself on sale day.

You don't need a ticket to visit during regular hours, and there's more there than the lights. The 2026 art exhibit, "unFROGettable," puts ten oversized fiberglass frogs around the grounds through December 31. Selected frogs will be auctioned from December 1 at 9 a.m. to December 31 at 11:45 p.m. Guided history tours run on the first and third Saturdays through the end of the year. The summer concert series ended September 4, and no fall concerts are listed.

Mayfaire's October, Across the Intersection

Mayfaire's HOA common areas are part of the state's filings too. Its fall calendar is running as usual. The Mayfaire events page lists:

• Art in Bloom, "From There to Here," an exhibit running September 18 through November 1
• Pinspiration's Lazy "Pumpkin" Acrylic Pour, October 21 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at 865 Inspiration Drive, $48
• Dave & Buster's Halloween, October 31, with a ticketed family Boo Bash from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and a ticketed, adults-only Moonlight Mixer from 7 to 10 p.m.

The storefronts on Mayfaire's "Now Open" list are mostly from spring. KidStrong had its grand opening in March, Ben & Jerry's in April, and Lovesac and Flip Flop Shops opened in May. None are new this fall, but they're all part of the October trip now. We didn't find a holiday kickoff on Mayfaire's calendar yet, so for now, the date to plan around is Halloween.

Still on the Way

Two more additions are close to the corner. Neither one has a confirmed opening date.

Center Point, the mixed-use project going up near the intersection, announced its first commercial tenants in May. They are Burtons Grill & Bar, Nest Interiors, Blended Shoes + Apparel, Thompson's of Wilmington, and Jeff's Bagel Run, together totaling more than 13,000 square feet, according to WilmingtonBiz. Burtons will lease just over 6,000 square feet for a menu of scratch-made American classics. That same May report projected the first openings for this fall or winter, or possibly next spring.

Izakaya by Bento Box is Chef Lee Grossman's planned yakitori-focused bar next to The Bento Box at 1121 Military Cutoff Road in The Forum. StarNews reported in June that it was expected "later in 2026." We haven't seen a confirmed opening as of mid-October.

Both of these will probably open before the overpass work begins in late 2027. That would give the corner a new restaurant, a bagel counter, and a men's store before the first construction barrels show up.

Want to know how the U-5710 easements and the access changes on Drysdale Drive might affect a particular home or street near Covil Estates? Team Gale can go through the project map with you and explain what it means for your property's value. Call (910) 541-1212 to reach an agent on duty, or request a home valuation.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.