About Us

Formed in 1967, Turnpike Properties is a small, family-owned, North Carolina company with a successful track record in both real estate development and the hospitality industry.

 Turnpike is best known for developing the Sanderling community on North Carolina’s Outer Banks. The development occurred on the heels of a donation by the Slick Family of more than 3,000 acres of coastal Outer Banks property to the National Audubon Society for essential bird habitat. At the heart of the development and the crown jewel of the community was the Sanderling Inn and Resort, initiated as a restoration of the old Caffey’s Inlet LifeSaving Station No. 5. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Caffey’s Inlet Station was one of the original seven stations built along North Carolina’s coast in 1874 when the U.S. Life-Saving Service was founded.

 Sanderling proved to be the beginning of a decades-long project along the northern Outer Banks, to include the Sanderling community and a 285-lot vacation home neighborhood in Pine Island. Turnpike’s development of the area strikes a careful balance between conservation-friendly building practices, appreciation of the history and architectural culture of the region, and community investment along the Atlantic Ocean.

 In addition to Pine Island and Sanderling, Turnpike has continued its legacy of responsible development practices in other signature communities in the Carolinas, including Kitty Hawk Cottages on Bald Head Island, Assembly Lakes in Litchfield, South Carolina; South Island Plantation in Georgetown, South Carolina; Windemere Island and Heronwood at Lake Norman, North Carolina; and Pine Island Reserve, Pine Island Club and, most recently, Pine Island Limited in Corolla, North Carolina.

About our Founder