week of 4/9/03
 
 
 
  Huge Bear Lake development planned
By Becky Johnson

A development company planning a high-end residential development on a 2,100-acre tract with 5.5 miles of shore line along Bear Lake in Jackson County is pledging to be environmentally sensitive, utilizing low-density housing and conservation areas within the development.

More than 500 homes are planned for the development, and lots will range from 1.5 to five acres.

A development of this magnitude is rare for the seven western counties. A development similar in size and approach — only twice as large — is Balsam Mountain Preserve at the northern end of Jackson County. It, too, was mapped and planned in its entirety before implementation of any road networks or home construction. Balsam Mountain is extremely low-density, however, with only about 250 homes on 4,400 acres, half of which was placed in a conservation tract. Balsam Mountain Preserve will include a golf course.

Ken Dingler of Sapphire is selling the property to Centex Destination Properties, a national construction company headquartered in Texas. Dingler bought the tract for $8.7 million in 2000, according to land records. What Centex is paying for the land has not been disclosed, but the sale is expected to close later this month.

Dingler, a real estate investor and part-time golfer, said he purchased the Bear Lake tract as an investment and intended to sell it to an experienced developer after a few years. Dingler advertised the tract nationwide, including the classified section of the Wall Street Journal. Dingler said he got many inquiries and offers.

“There’s not many places with miles of lake frontage where you can control the whole development. It was a piece of property that is unique,” Dingler said. “We wanted to find someone with a vision for a low-density development that would preserve the quality of the lake, and we waited until we found those people.”

John Lenihan, division president of Centex Destination Properties, said that the project is still the early planning stages.

“It’s ever-evolving and changing as you go through land planning,” Lenihan said.

The development will cater to the second-home and retirement market with high-end homes comprising the majority of the tract, Lenihan said. The development will include a few cabins and town homes, club houses, and possibly a golf course.

The name of the development is not decided, nor a date set for when lots will go on sale. Property buyers will construct their own home, but must comply with relatively strict architectural guidelines, including the size of the home and orientation on the lot.

The architectural guidelines, the layout of the lots, the road network and the layout of parks, greenways and conservation areas within the development are being designed by Scott Melrose and Associates, an Asheville land planning company.

Melrose said he has a team of six planners, landscape designers and architects working on the project.

“That kind of opportunity just doesn’t exist anymore. It’s pretty rare to have that much lake frontage,” said Melrose.

Melrose’s company is not new to large projects. They developed and planned the later phase of a 6,000-acre development on Lake Toxaway. But unlike the Bear Lake development, the Lake Toxaway development — which dates back to the1960s — did not undergo comprehensive planning before construction. When Melrose took over the project, they reversed the fragmented approach and implemented a much lower-density development.

“We have a long standing reputation of being environmentally sensitive with the projects we’ve done. That’s the reason most people hire us is because of our environmentally sensitive low-density development,” Melrose said.

The project will provide numerous jobs, according to Lenihan. Local companies will be involved in the construction process, and the thousand or more new residents will mean jobs for restaurants, gas stations, auto repair shops, landscapers and retail shops of all kinds.

“It’s going to be a great thing for the county. It will be a tremendous number of jobs and property tax revenue,” Dingler said. “It’s going to be a major, high-quality development.”

Before Dingler bought the property in 2000, it was owned by Tom Thrash of the Western Carolina Pallet Company. Of the 2,100 acres, 500 had been in Trash’s ownership for several decades. About 1,600 acres was owned by Nantahala Power and Light. A deal to transfer the property from the power company to the Forest Service fell through, and the land was put on the market. Trash, owning 500 acres adjacent to the power company, purchased the surrounding 1,600 acres in 1997 and combined the two tracts. The original 500 acres owned by Trash was logged in the 1970s but has remained untouched since.