On the morning of September 9, the parking lot at Oyster Creek Landing filled up early. Seoul Sushi, a Korean barbecue and sushi spot that started as a food truck in the Cape Fear region, opened its doors there for the first time, its second brick-and-mortar after a run in Wilmington's Cargo District. A few miles up Highway 17, on a lot that had sat mostly empty since May, framing had started to rise where county officials broke ground on a new library back in the spring.
Neither event made much noise outside Pender County. Together, though, they offer a snapshot of activity on Hampstead's Highway 17 corridor: a new restaurant opening and construction on a long-planned library.
Growth and New Infrastructure Along the Corridor
Pender County's population grew by nearly 20 percent over the last decade. Hampstead itself grew faster than that. Local counts put the community at about 4,000 residents in 2010 and over 7,000 by 2020, according to reporting from Port City Daily. That's not a rounding difference. That's a community that nearly doubled while its public library stayed in the same building it had occupied since 1983.
The push to replace that library started back in 2014. The project remained in planning for years. The county didn't approve a construction contract until February 17, 2026, when commissioners signed off on a $10.8 million budget that included a $7.9 million contract with Daniels & Daniels Construction. Even that approval came with friction. Commissioner Brent Springer voted against the contract structure, pointing to Central Pender Park, a separate county project that had gone over budget and past deadline, as a reason to tighten the terms this time.
From the first push to the first shovel in the ground, the library has had a long timeline. The project's timeline offers one perspective on the changes underway along Highway 17.
Oyster Creek Landing Took Three Years to Become What It Was Sold As
The retail and office hub at 43 Shuckin Lane was never meant to take this long either. Leasing materials from late 2022 projected shell delivery by June 2023 and tenants open for business that November. Instead, the project's public debut didn't come until a grand opening event in late May 2025, nearly a year and a half past that original target.
Even after that grand opening, the building kept filling in slowly rather than all at once. By the time it welcomed the public, Oyster Creek Landing already had P.T.'s Olde Fashioned Grille, Tiny'z Tavern, and Bubba & Finn's serving food, alongside Drift Coffee, Paradise Pilates, Haven Salon Studios, and Riccobene & Associates. Seoul Sushi is the newest addition, not the first wave. Owners Sang and Adam Woo describe it as a spot where people can come in for a sushi roll or Korean barbecue with friends, and Sang brought decades of culinary experience with him after relocating from Pittsburgh to the Hampstead area.
A building advertised as open by November 2023 that's still adding tenants in September 2026 isn't a story about delay so much as a story about demand outrunning the pace anyone building for it expected.
A Library Named for the Person Who Asked First
The new Hampstead Branch Library broke ground on May 6, 2026, at 15146 U.S. Highway 17. At 20,000 square feet, it will be roughly twice the size of the current branch, with a children's area, a dedicated teen room, meeting rooms, private study rooms, and a semi-covered outdoor courtyard. Sawyer Sherwood and Associate Architecture designed it with input gathered through public surveys and in-person sessions, and Daniels & Daniels is handling construction. The county expects it open in summer 2027.
The building will carry a name: the Judy Holly Sidbury Hampstead Branch Library, honoring a founding member of the Pender County Friends of the Library whose husband, Al Sidbury, made a donation to support the project. At the groundbreaking, the Topsail Township Friends of the Library announced a separate $500,000 gift toward the same effort.
Pender County Commission Chairman Randy Burton put the timeline plainly at the ceremony: the current library has been in that same spot since 1983, and the community has simply outgrown it.
Projects at Different Stages Along the Corridor
Drive that stretch of 17 today and you'll pass a functioning retail hub still leasing its last spaces next to a construction site that won't be finished for another year. The projects show different stages of development along the corridor. Highway 17 through Hampstead carries tens of thousands of vehicles a day, and the corridor now has ground-floor retail and a larger library under construction.
The library won't open until summer 2027. Oyster Creek Landing's newest restaurant already has customers this month. The difference in timing between a project announced and a project finished is one part of development along the corridor: the restaurant is open while the library remains under construction.
If you've been wondering why it feels like half of Highway 17 is either newly open or freshly under construction at the same time, the restaurant and library projects are two visible examples of that activity in 2026.
If you're weighing what any of this means for a move in or around Hampstead, Tiffany Housel can talk through what's changing on the ground and what it's worth to you. Let's Connect.
