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North Georgia Winery Development Creates New Paradym For Green Development

December 28th, 2010

Right up until the housing crash, developers were building golf courses one after the other. The amount of land, water and maintenance was unsustainable. The houses in these projects were enormous and expensive requiring even more resources.? Thousands of homes and lots have been developed with a faulty model.? Numerous developers and builders have gone out of business.? The remaining developers have been seeking a new paradigm ever since.

During the industrial age Americans fled the farms for work in the cities.? The post World War II, suburban movement led a mass exodus from the cities to the suburbs in search of space.? Concerns for sustainability has led to?two recent trends–urban redevelopment and New Urbanism.? Urban redevelopment has attracted many young couples and empty nesters seeking the conveniences of city life. New Urbanism developers have tried to create with varying degrees of success the feel of a city in the suburbs.?

A possible counter-trend to New Urbanism is New Ruralism.? Americans have lost all touch with their food chain and with the land.? Reconnecting with the land combined with sustainable development and green building has a real appeal to large segments of the US?population.? While these developments take large tracts of land, dedicating portions to agriculture, walking trails, parks and other outdoor activities has tremendous appeal.

Atlanta, Georgia has two good examples of New Ruralism.? Serenbe, south of Atlanta, centers is development around a 25 acre working farm and an old farmhouse converted into a bed and breakfast.? It’s success has been limited by difficulty with its builder group in the midst of a housing recession.? Whatever difficulties faced in the housing sector have been overshadowed by great success in food and culture.

The second example is a development a little more than an hour north of Atlanta in Georgia wine country.? Being built by Beecham Builders, Montaluce is a community based around a winery, vineyards and lifestyle.? Known for high quality construction, the Beechams, ?decided to expand their business.? A visit to Georgia wine country inspired them to create a community centered on a winery.

The theme of Tuscan architects falls back on an old philosophy of ancestral homes but using green building practices.? The most basic of principles used is size.? American homes have become so large that energy bills can be one of the largest bills families have to pay.? The Beechams envisioned smaller homes with larger entertainment areas and outdoor spaces.? This translates into lower cost of construction and lower energy usage.

While downsizing plays a large role, homes at Montaluce are constructed with deep wall cavities filled with blown in fiberglass on the inside and concrete block with stucco on the outside.? The energy efficiency attained greatly exceeds current standards.? The roofs are made from fired clay from Italy. The tile has cavities that allow air to cool the roof and are renewable as the roof can be ground up and reused as can the concrete block.? The use of Energy Star rated windows and doors completes an energy efficient, sustainable and renewable envelope.? The latest homes are now incorporating an even more efficient and renewable technique–Insulated Concrete Forms (or ICF).

On the development side, more than 60% of the 400 acres were preserved for greenspace and vineyards.? But that is not where it ended.? Using unique design Montaluce was able to avoid all detention ponds, curbs and gutters.? Roads were also narrowed to add to the rural feel but also reduced the amount of petroleum based, asphalt.

The final piece of New Ruralism is a reconnection with the land.? The winery produces all its wine from its own vineyards or from other local vineyards.? The restaurant inside the winery building incorporates the same local theme along with seasonal and fresh.? In the Fall the restaurant will incorporate vegetables from the one acre garden, as well as eggs and pork from Montaluce’s farm.

New Ruralism is certainly not for everyone, but future developers cannot ignore it. After the current recession abates, it is certain to change the behavior of most Americans.? Each in his own way, Americans will look introspectively and make a decision to reduce our overall footprint on the planet.? Some will do so?because of environmental reasons.? Others will do so because they seek to avoid future mistakes of overextending ourselves.? Whatever the reason developers will have to adapt or go out of business.

By: Brent Beecham

About the Author:

Author is a builder and developer of Montaluce Winery & Estates in Dahlonega, GA. The Beecham family has been building in Atlanta for 4 generations. Their quality is know throughout the Atlanta area. Montaluce is the Beecham’s first large development project. Montaluce is based around its vineyards, winery and restaurant, all passions of the Beechams. The homes built on the property are built using some of the latest techniques of green building. The development was planned in such a way to preserve more than 60% as either greenspace or agricultural. For more information please check our website http://www.montaluce.com

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Posted in Real Estate

Tags: Uspopulation

Finding Opportunities for Real Estate Development

December 12th, 2010

People often think that in order to be a real estate developer you have to stick a shovel in the ground. Nothing could be farther from the truth. What land developers do is make some change to the real estate that will increase its value. Real estate development potential exists where the parcel can be transformed in some way so that it will appeal to more types of buyers. Two of the cardinal rules in the land development business are that the value of land is always relative to how (or if) the property can be used, and the value of the land parcel increases when the property can be used by either more buyers or additional categories of buyers.

In reality, opportunities for real estate development are all around you because there are several ways of developing land that don’t involve building. It is true that sometimes development through change involves building, such as modifying an existing structure or demolishing it and building a new one. But many more real estate development opportunities exist where the change to the property is invisible.

For example, suppose you find a residential property located on a street that takes a lot of traffic. The appeal (and therefore, the value) of the parcel is limited because the only potential buyers are people who wouldn’t object to living in a house on a busy street. Chances are, the highest and best use of this property is something other than straight residential. So you would want to determine if there were alternative uses possible to expand the market for this property and increase its value. How would you find this out?

The first thing you should do is determine what uses of the property are allowed under the current zoning by reviewing the zoning map and ordinance available at the municipal office. Once you locate the property on the zoning map, you will see what zoning district the property is in. Then you would read the provisions in the zoning ordinance for that district. These would deal with several issues: uses permitted “by right” (meaning that no use approval is necessary), special uses permitted only when approval is given by a municipal board, and dimensional requirements, such as the minimum lot size and width, building setbacks and the height of structures. (You should review the entire ordinance because there may be other provisions elsewhere in the book that would also apply to the property.)

The particular zoning classification might permit single-family detached houses on the specified lot size by right. But it might also allow the property to be used as a school, church, or day care facility when authorized by the municipality so long as the property satisfied some specific conditions. These might require that the total land area of the parcel be a certain minimum size (e.g., at least 10 acres), the property be serviced by public utilities, or that the building and paved areas not exceed a certain percentage of the total land square footage of the parcel.

Next you would review the municipality’s comprehensive or master land use plan. This document might say, for instance, that the local government wanted to encourage professional office uses in the area where your property was located. This would indicate that the municipality might be open to either a change of the zoning classification for the property or allow it to be used for professional office by granting a “use variance.” A variance does not change the underlying zoning classification of a property, but essentially permits the property to “violate” some provision of the zoning. In this case, a use variance would allow the property to be used for something other than a single family detached home, church, school or day care. However, the municipality would likely impose some conditions and restrictions in exchange for the variance, such as preservation of the existing structure or limitations on the total amount of building square footage that could be built.

If you could develop this property by getting a change of use approved, the property would certainly be worth more than as a home. You could then sell it to buyers who wanted to construct an office building to either lease out the space or sell the property once the office facility was completed.

By: Nancy Chadwick

About the Author:

Nancy Chadwick is a PA licensed real estate Broker and Instructor specializing in land brokerage, consulting and development. Her experiences and land courses provided the foundation for her books Land Buying & Selling and Selling Land: The Owner’s Guide available at http://www.LandBuyingandSelling.com