Family Friendly
Wilderness Trail in the mountains and Tradition Hilton Head
near the ocean are promising Carolinas developments
WILDERNESS TRAIL
Banner Elk, North Carolina
BY LEE PACE
Avery County in the northwest corner of North Carolina has long been a haven for quality golf and private club experiences. Until recent road expansion, locals took pride that their county had more quality golf clubs-Linville, Grandfather, Elk River, and Linville Ridge-than it had stoplights.
Wilderness Trail will ultimately have 520 homes in a beautiful setting in the mountains near Banner Elk.
Angelo Accetturo chatted over the years with diners at his family’s Sorrento’s Restaurant in the village of Banner Elk and heard a familiar refrain:
“Whether it was the staff at the clubs or the members themselves, they’d all say, ‘There’s nothing for my kids to do up here,’” Accetturo says. “For 30 years this area catered to the older gentleman as an escape from business and family. My idea was to create a compound for the family-give everyone so many things to do they wouldn’t want to leave the property.”
Thus the idea for Wilderness Trail was hatched.
Accetturo is taking a thousand acres just outside the town of Banner Elk and creating a private community with 18 holes of golf and an expansive amenities list-including 12miles of trails, a 50-foot climbing wall, and separate enclaves for teens and tots. He’s also drawn on his personal visits to national parks in the west and dispatched his land planner with sketchbook in hand to visit several parks and glean ideas to transplant to Wilderness Trail.
“Most developers will run lot lines through a creek so they can tell you, ‘Look, you’re buying part of this beautiful stream!’” says Accetturo. “We did the exact opposite. We built a 25-foot buffer around every stream on the property. We’ve made nature trails so you can walk and enjoy all the creeks and streams, fish them if you want, without someone yelling, ‘Get off my property!’”
The golf course is a collaborative effort from Jim Fazio, the North Palm Beach-based designer best known for his work on Trump International, and Rick Robbins, a native of the High Country area of North Carolina whose family has deep roots in Avery County tourism. The course will have five sets of tees, the longest stretching to 7,036 yards.
The development plan calls for some 320 single-family and 200 multi-family homes, with homesites starting at $300,000. Eight homes were under construction as of mid-July 2008 and ground had been broken earlier in the summer on the Sporting Complex and Sporting Cottages. Ten holes of the golf course are scheduled to open in the summer of 2009 with the rest following in 2010.
TRADITION HILTON HEAD
Hardeeville, South Carolina
BY JOEL ZUCKERMAN
When the developers of South Carolina’s posh Colleton River Plantation decided to build in Bluffton, just west of the Hilton Head Island Bridge, people thought they were crazy. The common wisdom at the time was that nobody would build a home in a high-end golf community that wasn’t on the island itself.
Tradition Hilton Head anticipates a 15-year build-out of 9,500 homes in the growing town of Hardeeville.
That supposedly risky decision back in the early ’90s proved to be a wise one, and in the ensuing 15 years, the trek westward has continued unabated. Colleton River gave way to Belfair, which preceded Berkeley Hall, which came homes on the 5,300 acre property.
One of the homes that has been completed is getting some serious attention. Tradition is where the 2008 HGTV Green Home was built for the Home & Garden Television Network, in an attempt to bring the concept of “green building” to mainstream America. It’s one of less than two dozen LEED-Gold Certified homes in the U.S. (LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). The home’s attributes include a rooftop system for capturing rainwater, which is stored in an underground cistern to facilitate irrigation and sewage conveyance; non-toxic paint throughout; and solar panels, which store energy and act as an organic generator in the event of a loss of power. Almost 10,000 people toured the Green Home through spring, raising nearly $100,000 for the United Way.
Also open is the sterling, private Tommy (nephew of Tom) Fazio Tradition National Golf Course, with its adjacent six hole short course, already in excellent condition and a solid test of golf. As the community grows, there is land reserved for future golf courses. In the more immediate future will come a 50,000-square-foot fitness center and spa, with both indoor and outdoor pools, the latter covering nearly Half-an-acre. Besides the standard array of weight machines and cardio equipment, there will be innovative concepts like a juice bar, healthy cooking learning center, manicures, pedicures, and massages. Ten Har-Tru tennis courts will be built, with a viewing stand and exhibition court.
Beyond the standard country club amenities, the developers are also embracing the town center concept, based on “charming communities of days gone by.” So within the as-yet-
to-be-constructed village square there will be a grocery store, brew pub, and boutique-style retail space with a coffee shop, hair salon, bank, and pizza place.
