Exclusive 450-Home Planned Community Preserves Natural and Cultural

Warm Springs, VA, March 1, 2005- The Homestead Preserve is a 450-home planned community situated on 2,300 acres in and around the Warm Springs Valley of Virginia’s Allegheny Mountains.  Nestled around the towns of Hot Springs and Warm Springs in secluded Bath County, the Homestead Preserve will provide homeowners the opportunity to enjoy resort amenities and timeless rural living in one of the East Coast’s last great unspoiled natural landscapes.

“The setting for The Homestead Preserve is one of the most special on earth,” says Charles Adams, managing partner of the Homestead Preserve and co-founder of Celebration Associates, the award-winning developer of master-planned, mixed-use communities, towns, and villages throughout the southeastern United States.  “The Virginia Highlands, like The Homestead resort, are woven into the fabric of American history.  The traditions here are centuries-old, and the natural beauty is as stunning as it was when the first settlers discovered the magic of the healing natural springs here.”

Virginia Hot Springs Company, which was formed in 1892 by J. Pierpont Morgan, is now an affiliate of Celebration Associates and is working in partnership with Crosland, Inc. on the Homestead Preserve project.

The Homestead Preserve offers a variety of home settings, from 360-degree mountain vistas to rolling meadows that recall an English countryside.  Home sites range from ½ to 10 acres, with an average size of 2-3 acres.  The home styles will feature design patterns that celebrate and blend with the region’s architectural heritage.  These styles include “Highlands Farmhouse,” “Highlands Classical,” “Highlands Arts and Crafts,” and “English Romantic.”  The styles, as presented in the Homestead Preserve’s “Pattern Book” reflect more than two years of intensive study of the region’s historic architecture by architects from Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio, and even England.

The first phase of Homestead Preserve construction will begin in the spring of 2005 with the some property owners likely moving into their homes during the summer of 2006.

Each Homestead Preserve family will be assured the opportunity to apply for membership at the legendary 1766 Homestead resort.  The Homestead offers access to championship golf on three courses, including the famed “Cascades” course, fine dining, skiing, an equestrian center, shooting club, full-service spa, and an extensive array of year-round outdoor activities.

Homestead Preserve owners will also have the rare opportunity to serve as land stewards for future generations.  In 2002, Homestead Preserve developers sold 9,250 acres of their original 11,500-acre purchase on and around Warm Springs Mountain to The Nature Conservancy and, in October 2004, put an additional 935 acres into permanent conservation easements with the Virginia Outdoors Foundation to ensure the protection of the area’s mountain ridges and pastoral landscape for future generations.  The developers have also established a building envelope of no more than 15,000 square-feet on each individual home site to further protect the integrity of the landscape.  Together, these actions will insure that no more than 325 acres, or less than 3% of the original 11,500-acres purchased, will ever be affected by development.

The community’s 2,300 acres could have afforded the Homestead Preserve as many as 1,800 home sites, but the developers have limited the number to 450.  “Building the most houses was never what this project was about,” Adams explains.  “We made the determination that to create the kind of community we wanted and to protect the land for future generations, we would limit the project to 450.  Everyone involved in this project can hold their heads high about our conservation efforts and about our commitment to preserving the lifestyle that makes Bath County so special.”

The Homestead Preserve will combine this commitment to natural preservation and local history with state-of-the-art convenience thanks to “fiber-to-the-home” technology that will ultimately allow each home to be fully “wired” with the very latest in “smart home” devices, including high-speed internet service and a community intranet.

The sense of community will also be fostered through common areas in both the Hot Springs and Warm Springs “neighborhoods.”  Amenities will include pools and playgrounds in addition to gathering places for community-wide social events.  The Warm Springs community center will be located at the soon-to-be-renovated “Dairy Barn Complex,” a longtime community landmark that was used nearly a century ago to house local dances and once served all of the dairy needs and beef provision for The Homestead resort.

In order to ensure the Homestead Preserve’s commitment to natural and historical preservation continues into the future, Celebration Associates has established the Virginia Hot Springs Preservation Trust.  This trust, funded with a portion of each home sale, is a not-for-profit organization that will support educational programs for the community as well as a variety of preservation efforts.  “Our community members will help to ensure that the history and traditions of this region will live on for generations to come,” Adams says, “and help us to serve as good stewards for a landscape that must be protected forever.”

Homestead Preserve Managing Director Charles Adams and partner Don Killoren founded Celebration Associates in 1997.  Previously, both men were instrumental in the design and development of Celebration, Florida, near Orlando.  The 10,500-acre development is one of the world’s largest and most successful planned communities and was hailed by The Guinness Book of World Records as the “Most Advanced Community in the Country from 1996-1998.”  Other Celebration Associates planned community projects include The Village of Baxter in Fort Mill, SC and The Governor’s Club in Chapel Hill, NC.