Homestead Preserve Breaks Ground

Warm Springs, Virginia – April 28, 2005  Homestead Preserve celebrated groundbreaking for Phase I infrastructure at the old Homestead dairy complex in Warm Springs today, setting in motion construction for a unique planned vacation community that has been nearly five years in the planning.  By year’s end, shaded streets and utilities, including “fiber-to-the-home” technology, will reach all 139 Phase I home sites in the Old Dairy and Sheep Meadow neighborhoods, 91 of which have already been sold since January. 

Situated on 2,300 scenic acres in Bath County, the Homestead Preserve will consist of no more than 450 homes that reflect the historic architecture of the surrounding countryside and are designed to blend in with the region’s pristine rural landscape.  The property adjoins both the George Washington National Forest and The Nature Conservancy’s Warm Springs Mountain Preserve, and is located in rural Bath County near the famed Homestead Resort.

Attending today’s much anticipated groundbreaking ceremony were Homestead Preserve managing director Charles Adams and his Celebration Associates partners Don Killoren, President of Virginia Hot Springs Building Company, and Dane Vincent, President of Virginia Hot Springs Realty LLC.  Jack and Frank Blythe, President and Vice President respectively of Blythe Development Company, which will be the general contractor for the project’s infrastructure, also attended the event.  Blythe Development Company has provided infrastructure for a number of planned communities, including Baxter Village in South Carolina, another Celebration Associates project.  Brett Schoenfield, President of The Homestead Resort, Bath County Administrator Claire Collins, Supervisor Richard Byrd and Bath County Board of Zoning Appeals members Terry Kershner and Raymond Holloway were among the guests in attendance.

“Today’s groundbreaking is a significant milestone for Homestead Preserve, coming after nearly five years of intensive planning which included extensive research, surveying, environmental assessments, engineering and site planning,” said Charles Adams.  “Sales to date already total nearly $40 million, and it has been rewarding to see folks who have been coming to the area for years be able to buy property so that they can enjoy Bath County and The Homestead for generations to come,” he added.  Initial home construction will begin later this summer.  Homes will range in value from $750,000 to over $3 million.

Homestead Preserve is jointly owned by the partners of Celebration Associates and Crosland, Inc. Other projects of Celebration Associates include the Village of Baxter, part of the 7,000-acre Clear Springs Plan in Fort Mill, S.C., and the Governor’s Club, a 2,000-acre development near Chapel Hill, N.C.

Both Adams and Killoren were instrumental in the design and development of Celebration, Florida, near Orlando, which was hailed as the “Most Advanced Community in the Country from 1996-1998” by the The Guinness Book of World Records.  Crosland, Inc. of Charlotte, NC is a financial partner in Homestead Preserve, and Crosland’s President and CEO Todd Mansfield was also directly involved in the development and success of Celebration, Florida.  Crosland, Inc. is one of the Southeast’s leading and most diversified real estate companies.  For more information, call Deborah Huso at (540) 839-5147, or e-mail writewell@tds.net.