Stan Powell, Broker Local. Coastal. Trusted.
(910) 274-5067 StanPowell@SeaCoastRealty.com
Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Advantage

Your Community Guide · Sunset Beach, Brunswick County, North Carolina

The Sanctuary at Sunset Beach

A 363-homesite coastal neighborhood off Seaside Road with a coastal clubhouse and resort-style pool, roughly forty acres of open space, and the sand a mile and a half away. Here is how it is actually laid out — who really builds here, and what your dues cover.

For a lot of buyers, Sunset Beach starts as a vacation habit — a favorite stretch of sand, a restaurant you always stop at, a place you hate leaving on Sunday. The Sanctuary is one of the communities that can turn that feeling into a normal Tuesday: coffee on the porch, a golf-cart ride for errands, an afternoon at the pool, and the beach close enough that you don't have to plan your whole day around getting there.

363single-family homesites at full build-out
±40acres of open space — nearly double what the Town required
1.5 mito the sand at Sunset Beach
18floor plans in the current builder series
3,242square feet at the top of the plan range

Lot count and open-space figures per the Town of Sunset Beach subdivision record and the approved project narrative. Plan counts and sizes per the builder and subject to change.

Stan Powell, REALTOR and Broker, Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Advantage, 10020 Beach Dr. SW, Calabash, NC 28467

“I wanted to create these Community Guides because every neighborhood along our coast has its own personality, history, and little details that you simply can't see in a listing search. Over the past 20 years, I've worked with many of the builders who helped bring these communities to life, and I've watched them grow from the ground up. Along the way, I've had the privilege of welcoming so many people home here. These guides are my way of sharing what makes each community different, what makes them special, and why so many people are proud to call them home.”

Browse Every Listing In The Sanctuary Live MLS · Updated Daily

One builder, three very different ways to buy

The Sanctuary is not a community where you shop by section and get a different builder in each one. It is a single-builder neighborhood — and that changes the question. What actually separates your options here is how you buy: build it from a lot up, take one already under construction, or buy a resale from an owner who has already done the upgrades. Pick the one that fits and I'll send you live listings.

The Sanctuary at Sunset Beach entrance monument off Seaside Road SW
The entrance monument off Seaside Road SW. The heron mark on the sign turns up again inside the community — on the fountain at the amenity, and in the street names.

Let me clear up the single biggest misconception first, because it costs buyers time. Several national portals list The Sanctuary as if multiple builders work here, or imply you can bring your own custom builder to a lot. You cannot. The approved project narrative filed with the Town of Sunset Beach is explicit: Bill Clark Homes develops the land and constructs all the homes in the development.

Bronze heron sculpture and fountain at The Sanctuary at Sunset Beach
The bronze herons at the fountain. The same bird shows up on the entrance monument — the community is named for the birds, not for the quiet.

It is why the streetscape is as consistent as it is. But it does mean "custom" here means personalizing a builder plan, not hiring your own architect. What follows is how I'd sort the inventory if you were sitting across from me at my Calabash office. Each path has its own live search attached.

The right choice is not always the newest house. Some buyers want the experience of watching their home come out of the ground. Others want to arrive with the moving truck in a few weeks and start living. And some would rather buy the home where the palms have already taken root, the porch is finished and somebody else has already handled the first round of upgrades. The Sanctuary gives you all three versions of that decision.

Homes along a curving street in early morning light at The Sanctuary at Sunset Beach
Early morning on one of the interior streets. The marine naming theme runs throughout — Manta Ray Way, Moray Loop, Scup Place.

Build to suit

Pick the lot, then the plan

The closest thing to custom in The Sanctuary, and for most of my buyers the best value. You choose an unbuilt homesite, choose a plan from the builder's series, choose an exterior elevation, then personalize finishes through the Design Center. Options, room sizes and porch configurations vary by plan.

This is the path where representation actually earns its keep. Homesite premiums, structural options that have to be decided before the slab goes down, and which upgrades come back at resale are all decisions you make once and live with for a decade. A new phase has opened, so there is real lot selection right now — including pond and nature-view homesites.

There is also something different about choosing a homesite before there is a house on it. You are not only looking at lot numbers. You are deciding where the morning light will come from, what you'll see from the screened porch, and whether you want water, woods or another backyard behind you. Those choices are easy to rush in a sales center and hard to change later, which is most of the reason I like to walk the phase with a buyer before anybody signs a lot reservation.

Email Me For Updates On To-Be-Built Homes And HomesitesStanPowell@SeaCoastRealty.com
Home on a wooded homesite backing to mature pines at The Sanctuary at Sunset Beach
A home backing to the mature pines rather than to another rooftop. This is the kind of lot that goes early in a phase release, and the premium on it is negotiable more often than buyers assume.
Mint-green coastal elevation home with palms at The Sanctuary at Sunset Beach
The Coastal elevation. The soft greens and blues are part of the approved palette here — worth knowing before you fall for a color you saw in another community.
Cottage elevation home with full front porch at The Sanctuary at Sunset Beach
The Cottage elevation, with the front porch running the full width. Same floor plan can sit underneath three different faces — the elevation is what changes the street.
Typical size
1,489 – 3,242 sq ft
Bedrooms
3 – 5
Baths
2 – 4
Stories
One level, or one with bonus up
Garage
2-car attached
Elevations
Coastal, Cottage, Farmhouse
Builder
Bill Clark Homes

Quick move-in homes

Already under construction

Homes the builder started on spec — some framed, some nearly complete, some finished and waiting. The selections are already made, which is either the appeal or the drawback depending on your timeframe.

For out-of-state buyers this is often the practical answer. You are working around a sale back home, a lease, or a school calendar, and a firm delivery date is worth more than choosing your own backsplash. The trade-off: the lot was chosen for you, and lot quality varies more than buyers expect in a community with ponds, natural buffers and open community spaces along one boundary.

For relocation buyers, though, the appeal is usually less about giving up choices and more about gaining certainty. You can stand in the actual kitchen, look at the actual backyard, and know roughly when you'll sleep there. When your life is already full of movers, closings, travel and a house to sell somewhere else, that certainty is the luxury.

View Quick Move-In Homes Live MLS · Updated Daily
Palm-lined street of finished homes at The Sanctuary at Sunset Beach
A finished street in an earlier phase. Sidewalks, street trees already in, and enough variation in elevation and setback to keep the row from reading as repetitive. The tucked-in extra parking spaces along the street are a feature I absolutely love — they avoid the clogged-up look that street parking creates inside other communities.
Farmhouse elevation homes with board-and-batten gables at The Sanctuary at Sunset Beach
The Farmhouse elevation — board-and-batten gable and timber bracket. The one buyers photograph most on a first drive-through.
Typical size
1,600 – 2,700 sq ft
Bedrooms
3 – 4
Baths
2 – 3.5
Selections
Already made by the builder
Timeline
Weeks to a few months
Outdoor
Screened porch on most plans
Warranty
New-home builder warranty
Rear-load garage and driveway parking at The Cottages, The Sanctuary at Sunset Beach
The rear garage location for The Cottages with the convenient driveway for parking.

Resale homes

Earlier phases

The neighborhood is young, but there is now a genuine resale market in the first phases — and this is the quietly underrated collection. A resale here comes with the things a new build cannot give you for another five years: landscaping that has filled in, a screened porch that has already been added, gutters, a patio extension, sometimes a fenced yard.

A good resale simply feels warmer on day one. The shrubs have softened the front elevation, the neighbors are established, the porch has the afternoon shade figured out, and the small improvements that never make it into a floor-plan brochure are already there. For buyers who want coastal living without another project list waiting for them, that is a real advantage.

Resale is also the only way to buy certain floor plans. Plans the builder has since retired — the Ivy, the Jamestown, the Anderson, the Bedford, the Claremont among them — only exist here as resale inventory. If a plan you found online is not on the current builder list, that is usually why, and I can tell you which streets it was built on.

View Resale Homes Live MLS · Updated Daily
Homes facing a landscaped common green at The Sanctuary at Sunset Beach
Homes facing one of the landscaped commons. A lot that fronts open space instead of another driveway carried a premium new, and it holds that premium at resale — one of the few that reliably does.
Early-phase home with established landscaping at The Sanctuary at Sunset Beach
An early-phase home, lived in. Foundation beds filled in, palms established, and the owner's own touches already on the lawn.
Typical size
1,600 – 2,900 sq ft
Bedrooms
3 – 4
Baths
2 – 3.5
Home age
Earliest homes delivered 2022 onward
Landscaping
Established
Retired plans
Available only as resale
Amenity access
Full — same as new construction

Which buying path fits you?

Most buyers know the answer to this before they know the floor plan. Pick the one that sounds like your situation and I'll open the live search on it.

I want to build

You have time, you want the lot and the plan to be your call, and you'd rather wait for the right house than settle for the available one.

Email Me For Updates StanPowell@SeaCoastRealty.com

I need to move soon

There's a closing, a lease or a school calendar driving the date. You want to walk the actual house and get a delivery window you can plan around.

Quick Move-In Homes

I want it already finished

Landscaping in, porch done, upgrades handled. You'd rather inherit somebody's good decisions than make eighty of your own.

Resale Homes

The collection, on one page

Floor plans and what they actually give you

The builder currently offers eighteen plans here. These are the ones I get asked about most, with the size ranges as published. The spread inside a single plan is wide because structural options — a bonus room, a fourth bedroom, an extended porch — are what move the square footage.

Square footage matters, but the better question is how you expect to live in it. Do you need a bonus room for the grandchildren? A one-level plan because this is the house you intend to stay in? Enough separation that friends can visit for a week without everybody feeling on top of each other? I use the plan list as a starting point, then narrow it around the life the house has to support.

Row of homes in different plans and elevations at The Sanctuary at Sunset Beach
One street, several plans.

This is what the plan list looks like once it is built. The houses on a given street are not the same house in different colors — the series mixes true one-level plans, one-level-plus-bonus, and full two-story, and they are deliberately interleaved rather than grouped.

For buyers who want to stay put as they age, that matters: you can have a one-level home without living on the one cul-de-sac where every house is identical to yours.

Plan names, bedroom counts and heated square footage as published by the builder. Sizes reflect the base plan through its optional configurations. Pricing changes often enough that I don't publish it here — ask me for today's number on a specific plan and homesite.
PlanBedsBathsHeated sq ftNotes
Birchwood321,489 – 1,826Entry point to the series; true one-level
Essex1 – 32 – 31,603 – 2,168Flexible first-floor owner's suite
Grantville32 – 31,670 – 2,275Popular with downsizers
Finley32.5 – 3.51,797 – 2,494Bonus-up option adds the third bath
Brookside1 – 52 – 41,845 – 2,775Widest configuration range in the series
Ashton3 – 42 – 31,926 – 2,857Scales furthest from its base plan
Hadley32.5 – 3.52,237 – 2,856Larger footprint, generous owner's suite
Fletcher332,244Single fixed configuration
Hanover4 – 53 – 42,371 – 2,777Best plan here for multigenerational visits
Beckett33.52,223 – 2,679Built as the model on Scup Place

Ten of eighteen shown. Ask me for the full current plan sheet, including which plans are released in the newest phase and which homesites each one will actually fit.

Browse Every Listing In The Sanctuary

What you actually get to use

The clubhouse, the pool, and forty acres of open space

The amenity sits centrally rather than tucked in a corner, which sounds like a small planning decision and isn't — it is why there is parking, and why the mail kiosk works for the whole community instead of only the streets nearest the gate.

Resort-style pool and clubhouse at sunset at The Sanctuary at Sunset Beach
The pool at the end of the day, with the tanning ledge and its loungers at the left. Note how much deck there is — it was sized for 363 homes, not for the first phase.

Ask a resident what sold them and you usually get the pool, then the walk. The pool has a tanning ledge and a lap section, and the deck is sized for the full 363 homes rather than for the first phase — which matters on a Saturday in July, when a pool built for a hundred homes turns into a chair hunt.

The best amenity is the one that becomes part of the week rather than something you show visitors once. Here the pool is where you cool off after the beach, where you run into neighbors before dinner, and where you spend a quiet weekday afternoon while the summer crowds are somewhere else. That everyday usability is the whole point.

Behind it: the coastal clubhouse with gathering and meeting space, restrooms and changing areas, and a fitness center with cardio and strength equipment. Practically, that means you are not driving to Shallotte or Little River for a treadmill.

Covered pavilion with hanging swings beside the pool and clubhouse at The Sanctuary at Sunset Beach
The pavilion from the lawn, with the pool and clubhouse just beyond. Fans overhead, swings facing the water, and enough shade that it stays usable through a July afternoon.

The outdoor fireplace and grilling stations are the piece I point out to buyers coming from the Northeast, because they are the amenities that extend the season. Sunset Beach shoulder months are mild enough that an outdoor gathering space is in use most of the year.

For the retirees I work with, the grandchildren question comes up on every tour. The honest answer here: this is an all-ages community with a pool built for all ages, sidewalks throughout, and a beach a short drive away. That combination is worth more than most buyers realize until the first summer visit.

Covered pavilion with hanging swings overlooking the pool at The Sanctuary at Sunset Beach
The covered pavilion, with hanging swings facing the water. This is the corner of the amenity that gets used in February, when the pool doesn't.

Picture the part of coastal living that never makes the beach brochure: a mild February afternoon, a sweater instead of a winter coat, somebody grilling while friends gather by the fireplace, and no need to wait until June to feel like you're enjoying where you live.

Clubhouse exterior with metal roof and cupola at The Sanctuary at Sunset Beach
The clubhouse from the lawn. Standing-seam metal roof, deep wraparound porch, cupola over the center — built to read as coastal rather than suburban.

The building itself is not an afterthought

Plenty of communities in this price band put up a clubhouse that is really a meeting room with a bathroom attached. This one was designed — standing-seam roof, cupola, porch deep enough to sit on, lawn kept open in front of it rather than parceled into more lots.

That matters beyond looks. A clubhouse people actually want to be in is the difference between an HOA amenity that gets used and one that quietly becomes a line item on your dues.

Pool deck with shaded tables, umbrellas and waterslide at The Sanctuary at Sunset Beach
The deck from the clubhouse end — shaded tables, loungers along the water, and the slide at the far corner.

Two details buyers miss on a quick tour. First, there is a waterslide — which answers the grandchildren question before you have to ask it, and is genuinely uncommon in a community this size. Second, the furniture is split between tables and loungers, so you are not competing for the only shaded seat when you want to eat lunch out there.

The deck wraps the pool on all four sides. On a July Saturday that is the difference between finding a chair and giving up.

Resort-style pool

Tanning ledge and lap section, with a deck sized for the community at full build-out rather than for the first phase.

Coastal clubhouse

Gathering and meeting space for clubs and card groups, with restrooms and changing areas attached to the pool house.

Fitness center

On-site cardio and strength-training equipment, so a gym membership is optional rather than assumed.

Cabana & outdoor fireplace

Open-air lounge with a fireplace — the part of the amenity that stays in use through the shoulder seasons.

Grilling stations

Community grills at the amenity, which is genuinely useful for owners in plans without a large rear patio.

Golf cart parking

Designated cart parking at the amenity. In this town that is not a novelty — the cart is how people actually get to the shops and dining.

Sidewalks & walking paths

Sidewalks along both sides of Coraline Boulevard and one side of the interior streets, tying into the open space.

±40 acres of open space

Roughly double the Town's requirement, mixing landscaped common area with retained natural buffer and pond edges.

Front entrance of the clubhouse at 1604 at The Sanctuary at Sunset Beach
The clubhouse entrance. Rockers on the porch, paver drive, and the fitness room and gathering space through those doors.

Everything is behind one door

Gathering space, restrooms and changing rooms, and the fitness equipment are all through this entrance, and the mail kiosk sits just outside it. That is a planning decision worth noticing: every home in The Sanctuary collects mail here rather than from cluster boxes scattered down the streets.

Covered mail kiosk with cluster mailboxes and flagpole at The Sanctuary at Sunset Beach
The mail kiosk — covered, lit, and set beside the amenity lawn rather than stuck on a corner. The flagpole and the stray beach ball tell you most of what you need to know about the place.

Buyers sometimes read a central kiosk as an inconvenience. In practice it is the single most reliable way people here meet their neighbors, it is why the amenity parking was sized the way it was, and it keeps the streetscape clean — which shows up in photographs and in resale appeal.

Where the name comes from

The bronze herons standing in the fountain are the detail I point out to every buyer, because they explain the place. This stretch of Brunswick County is wading-bird country — the ponds and the marsh edge along the Calabash River draw them — and the community took its name and its mark from that rather than from a golf course or a developer's surname.

The bronze heron fountain and its basin on Coraline Boulevard at The Sanctuary at Sunset Beach
The whole fountain from the street. The herons stand on a raised plinth at the center of a long curved basin, with jets along both sides — it sits right on Coraline Boulevard, so you pass it every time you come and go.

It is a small thing. But it is the kind of small thing that tells you whether the people who planned a neighborhood were paying attention to where they were building.

The question everyone asks second

What the dues cover

The Sanctuary's dues sit above a bare-bones subdivision and well below a golf club's, because they bundle in lawn maintenance and a full amenity. Run the comparison before you judge the number — the lawn line alone is what most buyers were paying separately at their last house.

For some buyers lawn maintenance is a line item. For others it's a lifestyle decision. If this is a second home, a retirement move, or simply the house where you'd like your weekends back, having the routine exterior work handled means you arrive to the beach and the porch instead of arriving to a chore list.

Included for owners

  • Lawn maintenance
  • Clubhouse and amenity center
  • Pool and pool service
  • Fitness center
  • Cabana, outdoor fireplace and grilling stations
  • Common areas, open space and walking paths
  • Common-area electric and irrigation
  • Professional management

What owners still handle

  • Home exterior and roof
  • Windows, doors and paint
  • Beds, shrubs and any owner-added landscaping
  • Homeowners and flood insurance on the dwelling
  • Pest and termite contracts

How it's governed

  • Single homeowners association covering the whole community
  • Declarant control transitions to owners as build-out progresses
  • Architectural review applies to fences, porches and exterior changes
  • Budget and reserve position change annually

Getting around

The one where you can actually leave the car

This is what separates The Sanctuary from every other new community in the south Brunswick corridor. It is on the mainland side, off Seaside Road SW at Coraline Boulevard — close enough to the Sunset Beach commercial strip that the grocery store, the coffee shop, the pharmacy and several restaurants are a golf cart ride, not a drive.

This is the difference between living near the coast and feeling connected to it. When coffee, groceries, dinner, the park and the beach are all close enough for a bike or a cart, the area stops being a place you visit and starts being your neighborhood. That's a subtle distinction on a map and a very large one once you live here.

Sidewalk and landscaped common area along a street at The Sanctuary at Sunset Beach
Sidewalks and planted common area along the street. This is the ±40 acres of open space doing its job — it is not all tucked behind the homes.

The street names give the theme away once you're inside: marine, not nautical-kitsch. If you are cross-referencing an address from a portal and it reads like something you'd pull out of the Intracoastal, it is probably inside The Sanctuary.

Sunset Beach — the sand
~1.5 miles
Groceries, pharmacy, coffee
golf cart
Sunset Beach Fishing Pier
~5 min
Ingram Planetarium & Village Park
~5 min
Sea Trail golf courses
~5 min
Downtown Calabash & the seafood row
~10 min
Shallotte
~15–20 min
North Myrtle Beach
~20 min
Ocean Isle Beach
~20 min
Myrtle Beach International Airport
~40 min
Novant Health Brunswick Medical Center
~35 min
Wilmington
~1 hr

A good Saturday here doesn't take much planning: breakfast in Calabash, a beach walk before the heat builds, back home for the pool, then dinner close by without spending the day in the car. For a lot of relocation buyers, that smaller radius is exactly what they came to the coast to find.

What that radius actually looks like

The sand at Sunset Beach, a mile and a half from the entrance
The sand itself. Sea oats holding the dune line and the tide running out at the end of the day.
The fishing pier at sunrise near Sunset Beach
The fishing pier at first light — about five minutes from the community.
The Kindred Spirit mailbox on the beach near Sunset Beach
The Kindred Spirit mailbox, out past the last house at the west end. People have been leaving notebooks in it for decades.
Golf course at sunrise near Sunset Beach, North Carolina
One of the courses a few minutes from the entrance. Golf is why a lot of buyers looked at this corner of the county first.
Moonrise over the dunes and sea oats at Sunset Beach
Moonrise over the dune fence. Most of the year the beach empties out after dinner.
Shrimp boats on the Calabash waterfront at dusk
The Calabash waterfront at dusk, where the boats behind the seafood restaurants tie up. Ten minutes away.

Streets you'll see in the listings

The marine naming convention runs through the community. If you're cross-referencing addresses from a portal, these are inside The Sanctuary:

Not a complete list — new streets are still being dedicated as phases open. Ask me if you're unsure whether an address falls inside the association.

Want to know which homesites and homes I'd actually shortlist today?

Not the full inventory list — the three or four I'd put in front of you if you were my buyer, and the reasons the rest didn't make it.

Call (910) 274-5067 Email Me Your Criteria

Straight answers

What the national sites get wrong about The Sanctuary

I check these portals because my buyers read them first. Here is where the record needs correcting.

"Multiple builders / bring your own builder."

No. The approved project narrative on file with the Town of Sunset Beach states that Bill Clark Homes develops the land and constructs all the homes. There is no custom builder section and no lot-only purchase for an outside builder.

"It's on Sunset Beach island."

No. The Sanctuary is on the mainland side, off Seaside Road SW. The sand is about a mile and a half away — walkable, bikeable, cart-able, but you are not crossing the bridge to get home, and that has real implications for insurance.

"It's a 55+ community."

No. The Sanctuary is all-ages. If age-restricted living is what you actually want, I can point you to the communities in this corridor that genuinely are.

"Sold out" or "no longer selling."

Not true as of this writing. A new phase has opened with homesites released. Portal listings go stale fast in an actively building community — call me for what is actually available today.

Questions I get about The Sanctuary

Who tends to like The Sanctuary most?

The buyers who respond best usually want the beach close but don't need to live on the island. They like new or newer construction, they appreciate having lawn maintenance and amenities handled, and they want everyday conveniences within a short ride. I see it land hardest with retirees, second-home buyers and relocators who want coastal living to feel easy rather than high-maintenance. It's all-ages, so the fit here is about lifestyle far more than age. If you'd rather have a boat lift, an acre, or an oceanfront front door, I'll tell you that plainly and point you somewhere else in the county.

Can I bring my own builder or buy a lot only?

No. The Sanctuary is a single-builder community — Bill Clark Homes develops the land and builds all of the homes, per the project narrative approved by the Town of Sunset Beach. What you can do is choose your homesite, choose a plan, choose an exterior elevation and personalize finishes through the builder's design process. If a true custom build on your own lot is what you want, that exists elsewhere in this corridor and I'll show you where.

Is The Sanctuary a 55+ community?

No. Despite what several retirement directories imply, it is an all-ages community. Residents skew toward retirees and second-home owners, but there is no age restriction and the amenity is built for all ages.

How far is it really from the beach?

About a mile and a half to the public beach access, on the mainland side of the waterway. Plenty of residents bike or take a golf cart. You are not on the island, which matters for both price and insurance — and for most buyers that trade is the whole point of the community.

Does the HOA cover lawn care?

Lawn maintenance is included in the dues, which is the main reason this community reads as lock-and-leave for second-home owners. Exact inclusions and the current dues figure change with the annual budget, so I pull the live documents rather than quoting a number that will be wrong in six months.

Should I use my own agent if I'm buying new construction here?

Yes — and register me with the builder on your very first visit, before you tour. The on-site team works for the builder. I spent a long stretch of my career on that side of the table, including with Bill Clark Homes, so I know how homesite premiums are set, which structural options have to be decided before the slab, and which upgrades come back at resale. It costs you nothing to have me there, but the timing of the registration is not flexible.

Can I rent my home out?

Rental rules and minimum lease terms are set by the governing documents and can be amended as the community builds out. Never assume, and never rely on what a listing remark says. I get the current covenants and any rental amendments in front of you before you go under contract.

How's the resale market here?

I publish a branded market snapshot for The Sanctuary covering absorption rate, days on market and closed price trends. Ask me for the current edition — it's free and there's no obligation attached to it.

Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Advantage

Stan Powell

REALTOR®, Broker

CNE · ABR · e-PRO · CSP

Office

10020 Beach Dr. SW
Calabash, NC 28467

Cell (910) 274-5067 Office (910) 579-8471 StanPowell@SeaCoastRealty.com