For a decade, if you asked a Leland resident where "downtown" was, you got a pause, then a shopping center address off US-17. Town Hall Drive was the government block. It wasn't where anyone went on a Friday night.
On Friday, July 31, more than 2,000 people did exactly that. The Embers played the new amphitheater, the splash pad ran until dusk, and the block behind Town Hall stopped being an administrative address and started being a place. If you live here, the practical question is what to do with it between now and Labor Day.
What's Actually in the Park Now
Founders Park sits at 113 Town Hall Drive, nearly eight acres wedged next to Town Hall. It has been the town's flagship park since 2004, but the version you can walk into this month is essentially a different park. The renovation added an amphitheater and event lawn, an inclusive playground, a natural play area, a splash pad, fitness stations, a veterans memorial, a picnic shelter with restrooms, and connective walking paths tying the whole thing to the 0.6-mile paved multi-use path that already looped the property.
A few operational details worth knowing before you drive over with kids in swim trunks:
- The splash pad is free, open daily 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., May through September.
- Water features activate by pressing the button on the blue pole near the entrance, and each cycle runs about four minutes.
- There is no lifeguard, adult supervision is required, and restrooms are on site but there are no designated changing areas.
- The park, splash pad, and picnic shelter are not being rented or reserved right now. Everything is first-come, first-served.
The delay story is the part locals kept hearing about at the coffee counter. Construction started at the end of 2023, following a design phase that began in June 2021, and was originally supposed to wrap by the end of 2024. The project ran late after town officials identified an alignment issue with the amphitheater and raised concerns about the quality of some of the original contractor's work. The park partially reopened in December 2025 during "Leland in Lights," giving residents a first look at the playground and paths. The amphitheater was the last piece to fall in place.
The Live in Leland Calendar Runs Through September
The amphitheater's opening night was not a one-off. The Town launched its first "Live in Leland" concert series the same evening, and it continues through September with a mix of concerts and a theatrical performance. The Town has been posting the schedule to its events calendar alongside the ongoing programming at the Leland Cultural Arts Center, which is where the youth "Beyond the Sea and Space" sessions run on August 3 and 4.
If you have not built a summer weekend around a town-run outdoor venue before, a few things to expect based on the grand opening:
- Food trucks and vendors line the walkways. At the ribbon cutting, organizers included small businesses and community groups alongside the entertainment.
- The amphitheater faces an open event lawn. Chairs and blankets are the move. Sight lines from the picnic shelter are reasonable if you have small kids who need a break.
- Parking is on the Town Hall side. The multi-use path is your route to the amphitheater without crossing traffic.
The Embers headlined the first live performance, and town officials said Founders Park will host concerts, movies, festivals, and other community events going forward. Translation: this is the venue you were driving to Wilmington to find.
Why This Matters More Than a Park
The reason the opening drew a state representative, a county commissioner, and a congressional office to the ribbon cutting is not that Leland built a new playground. It is that the town's center of gravity is shifting.
For years the commercial energy of Leland lived along US-17 at Waterford, at Leland Town Center, and inside the Villages at Brunswick Forest. Town Hall Drive was where you renewed a permit. What Founders Park does is give the original town core a reason to draw people who do not have municipal business.
That shift is not happening in isolation. The Town is separately renovating and expanding Leland Town Hall itself, with a new addition that includes offices, meeting rooms, flex spaces, restroom facilities, and ancillary areas. In July, the Town also announced a $3,000 grant from the Duke Energy Foundation to support planting roughly 24 trees along the Gateway Boulevard corridor. None of these are headline items on their own. Stacked, they read like a town that has decided its civic identity does not end at a strip-center parking lot.
What's Changing Along US-17 While You're at the Park
The commercial side of Leland is not standing still while the civic core catches up. If you have been away from the US-17 corridor for a few weeks, here is what is different or coming:
- McAlister's Deli opened on New Pointe Boulevard after months of interior buildout. The restaurant received its building permit in March, worked through kitchen hood and interior work into the fall, and Area Supervisor Barry Brewton said staff training started September 22 with opening about a week after training.
- Little Caesars is taking the former GameStop bay. The location is inside the Shoppes at Westgate and will be take-out only, according to project documents obtained by StarNews.
- Texas Roadhouse is on the way. The chain is set to open a new location in Leland Town Center in 2026, according to C&S Commercial Properties.
- Savannah Branch Town Center at US-17 and Lanvale Road is the piece that will change daily errands the most. A Publix is planned as the anchor, with Ulta Beauty and Marshalls among the confirmed tenants.
- Around The Villages at Brunswick Forest, new pads keep filling in with tenants like Chipotle, and the town's approval calendar has a big bank branch and a national fast food chain in the pipeline near the Villages according to April 2026 reporting.
The through-line for existing residents: fewer trips across the bridge. The through-line for the park conversation: the amphitheater programming is now competing with your own kitchen and your own patio, not with driving into Wilmington.
A Late-Summer Saturday That Did Not Exist a Year Ago
If you have out-of-town family coming through in August, or you are just trying to break the routine, here is a shape that works with what is actually open right now:
- Morning at the splash pad. Get there closer to 9 a.m. than 11 a.m. The button-activated cycles keep the crowd rotating, but there is no shade over the pad itself.
- Walk the 0.6-mile multi-use path with coffee. The path now connects the playground, fitness stations, veterans memorial, and picnic shelter as one loop instead of the disconnected pieces it was before.
- Lunch pickup at McAlister's on New Pointe Boulevard, back to the picnic shelter to eat.
- Nap window at home during the hottest part of the afternoon.
- Back to the amphitheater in the evening for whichever Live in Leland date lands on your weekend. Chairs, blankets, and cash for food trucks.
That is not a schedule I could have written you last August.
What's Next on the Local Calendar
The town's public calendar already has anchor dates for the rest of the year that will use the new park. Live in Leland runs through September. The Leland Fall Festival returns in the fall. Lend a Hand, the community-wide service day, is Saturday, October 3 from 8 a.m. to noon, and Leland in Lights will illuminate the park again through early January.
Zoom out one more click and there is a slower story worth watching. Town officials are preparing to overhaul development regulations, creating a unified development ordinance to replace decades of fragmented zoning and development rules, with the goal of giving the town tools to manage growth. The Leland Planning Board discussed the framework for the rewrite on January 27, outlining a roughly year-long timeline with public stakeholder input before adoption. If you own here, that ordinance rewrite is the document that will shape how the next decade of Leland actually gets built. The park opening is the visible piece. The zoning rewrite is the quieter one.
For the next six weekends, though, the useful thing is simpler. There is finally somewhere to go on Town Hall Drive on a Friday night.
If you are thinking about what your Leland home is worth in a market that is quietly reorganizing around a real civic center, the Chris Luther Team tracks these shifts block by block. Request Your Free Coastal Home Valuation and we will build the number from what is actually selling near you.
