It’s your dream to build a home on the Outer Banks.

It’s ours to help make it happen.

No one will work harder. — Austin Kelly

About Croatan Custom Homes

My name is Austin Kelly and I grew up in New England on jobsites.
My father is an architect and engineer, just like his father before him. Building is literally in my DNA.

In high school, I worked as a manager trainee at McDonald’s at my father’s suggestion. “Management experience is critical,” he’d say. (He was right.) I put myself through the University of Connecticut by framing houses and graduated with a degree in Economics. After college, I was promoted to head residential foreman at the same construction company that hired me away from McDonalds in high school.

I’ll never forget the day it happened. I was sweeping the floor in McDonald’s when a man walked up to me and shook my hand. He said he’d noticed that I was a hard worker and offered me a summer job with his construction company. Leaving work that night, I could’ve turned right to go home or left to meet him at his jobsite. In what turned out to be a life-changing decision, I turned left.

A few years later, I moved to California, where I earned my real estate license and did a lot more construction work. I also earned my MBA with a specialization in Project Management, met my incredible wife and moved back to her home town on the Outer Banks – now my adopted home – to continue raising a family.

Over 25 years in the Home Building Industry.

Licensed general contractor specializing in both custom homes and speculative builds.

MBA with specialization in Project Management.

Member of the Outer Banks Home Builders Association.

Member of the OBHBA Board of Directors.

Multi-year Parade Of Homes Contributor.

Voted the 2024 Silver Winner for Best Home Builder in the Reader's Choice BEST of OBX Contest.

 

Take a moment to see the work for our family of clients throughout the Outer Banks.

 

REVIEWS

"Of the many decisions that came with building our dream home on the Outer Banks, choosing Austin Kelly as the builder was the best.”
– C. Lakis

"Just what I love, a contractor that will put on his tool belt and work along side his guys."
— J. Nash, Framer

"Attention to detail ... he loses sleep over it!"
— Michael O.

THANK YOU for Voting Us a Winner in the BEST OF OBX Contest!
2024 WINNER
Best Home Builder

Kitty Hawk
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Real Estate
Brew Thru

Brew Thru

No trip to the Outer Banks is complete without cruising through Brew Thru, the Outer Banks’ original drive thru convenience store. Whether you’re looking for a refreshing cold beverage of Coke, Pepsi and other soft drinks on the go, stocking up your cooler with refreshments to enjoy at the beach or piling up on beer and wine for a party, Brew Thru is a fun and unique experience all vacationers need to see for themselves.

Drive-Through Beer & Gear

Brew Thru is Your One-Stop Shop at the Beach

The year was 1977, and Dana and Becky Lawrentz were chatting with friends over brews in their hometown of Akron, Ohio. They got to talking about a gas station convenience store in the area that had built a makeshift drive-through. Everyone agreed it would be pretty great if you could actually drive through a convenience store and pick up everything you needed without getting out of the car. But what would you call a place like that?

Well, you’d call it a Brew Thru.

It was an idea they couldn’t shake, so the Lawrentzes moved to the Outer Banks and built the first Brew Thru with the help of a partner. The idea was that people could come buy everything they would need for their trip to the beach—beer, wine, soft drinks, snacks, ice—without getting out of the car. That same year, a t-shirt salesman visiting the store and talked them into adding t-shirts to their product line—and 44 years later there are now more than five million Brew Thru t-shirts out in the wild.

The Lawrentzes’ daughter Brandy and her husband Philip Foreman purchased the business from them in 2002, and they now operate five locations across the Outer Banks.“We love being the one-stop shop for folks on the way to their beach house,” Foreman says. “Our car tenders are the friendliest people at the beach. We’re here to greet you, get you everything you need for your trip, load it up in the trunk for you, and have you leaving with a smile on your face.”

The store is quite expansive, featuring more than 100 brands of beer, dozens of wines and even a vast selection of cigars—not to mention all the snacks, t-shirts and other gear. To make ordering a little easier, customers in line get a menu—fondly known as the Summer-y—that outlines everything available at the store. These Summer-ies are also available in many of the beach rentals, which allows vacationers to decide what they want before driving through.

For customers who would like to get out and stretch their legs, there’s the Brew Thru Shop in Kill Devil Hills, where you can find their world famous t-shirts and other gifts. New t-shirt designs are created each year, making a yearly Brew Thru t-shirt a favorite of locals and annual visitors to the Outer Banks.

The Foremans both grew up in the Outer Banks, and they love that Brandy’s parents’ vision for a friendly and convenient place for people to grab their brews and other beach stay essentials is continuing to flourish.

“Our family has been welcoming people to the Outer Banks since 1977,” Foreman says. “We love this beautiful place, and we want everybody to get to enjoy it.”

(More Locations)