After a career as a kicker in the NFL, Connor Barth decided to try his hand at developing houses. His third effort is his most ambitious to date, a distinctively modern home in one of Wilmington, North Carolina’s nicest neighborhoods.
Barth played with several NFL teams but spent the longest period with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. During his initial stint there from 2009 to 2012, he tied a league record with three field goals of more than 50 yards in one game, according to the Greater Wilmington Sports Hall of Fame.
In recent years, Barth worked briefly as a real estate agent, renovated his first house in 2017 as he approached retirement from football, and moved on to developing homes from the ground up. For his project at 625 Dundee Drive in Highlands, a subdivision in the Landfall neighborhood, he worked closely with architect Kevin Pfirman. Marshall Pickett of Ivester Jackson Christie’s International Real Estate has listed the house for just under $8 million.
“When you’re kicking a football, you know it’s on you if you make a mistake,” Barth told Homes.com. “As a kicker, if I was late for practice I’d be fined thousands of dollars. But I’m finding as a developer, there are so many more people you’re counting on to meet deadlines and get the job done. I’ve had to change my expectations a little bit, like if someone can’t get to the job site that day.”
The house’s design includes elements of the many five-star hotels Barth stayed in as he traveled to play football, and also reflects some of Pfirman’s experiences as a recreational surfer in Costa Rica and elsewhere.
It was important to Barth to have a fluid transition between the outside and interior of the house. One way he achieved that, he said, was with the walkway that runs through the house from the front entry to the pool in back, and planter boxes inside. He also wanted the pool to be a focal point for entertaining, with the house arranged in wings on either side of the pool and patio.
An unusual element Barth included is a second-floor porch that looks a bit like a lookout tower, providing a good view of the pool area and the adjacent marsh in Howe Creek.
“There’s something about being up high — I feel it’s a cool feature for getting away,” he said.
But it’s good for entertaining and escaping, he added, since the porch includes heaters, icemakers and a TV.
The outside of the house is covered in cypress, which Barth also used in parts of the interior. The walkway that runs through the house is balau wood.
The 1-acre property sits on Howe Creek, which flows into the Intracoastal Waterway parallel to the Atlantic Ocean. The homeowners association didn’t permit it, but one thing Barth wishes he could have done was to install a dock so residents could access the water, giving the property added value. Whoever buys the house may want to install stairs from the pool area down to the backyard next to the marsh, he said, so they can access that area without walking around from the front of the property.
Barth didn’t work with an interior designer on the house; instead, he picked out all the finishes himself.
“I’m not really sure where I got the creativity from,” he said. “It can be good or bad — it’s a lot more pressure on me. I think I have a decent eye for colors and how to blend them, but if I do this again, I’ll probably bring a designer into the fold.”
