THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, September 24, 1996 TAG: 9609240288
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 38 lines
For 30 years developer Frank Habit has buzzed around Elizabeth City like a wasp with an attitude.
Habit boldly built houses, condos and commercial buildings where nobody built before, and remodeled or renovated when that seemed the next best thing.
Never once did Habit avoid a fight with bankers, lawyers or title searchers.
``This is my finest hour,'' Habit said in 1991 when he bought and demolished the old Continental Grain elevators on the Pasquotank River just north of the Camden bridge.
``And I shall return,'' Habit added as the 150-foot high elevators came thundering down.
Now Habit is back - with $6 million, he said, and a new gleam in his eye.
Where the grain elevators once stood, Habit said, he will build The Anchorage, a complex of 50 condominiums - 30 on the riverfront - and each with a private boat slip.
The new condos will be built upriver from Yacht Club Villas, a nine-unit residential development that Habit built as his first project after buying the grain elevators.
Prices for one of the new condos will start at $160,000, Habit said.
Construction will start in November and be completed in 1997, he said.
Habit displayed architects' drawings of The Anchorage, which will be built under the supervision of The Habit Corp., a Hilton Head, S.C., company managed by Habit's son, Franklin H. Habit II.
The senior Habit was identified as the ``on site'' project director.
``We expect the overall cost will be between $6 million and $6.5 million,'' the elder Habit said Monday.
Principals in the consortium were not identified, but Habit said the entire project is owned by Continental Plaza, a company whose officers reside in Edenton, Springfield, Va., and Hilton Head. by CNB