Pools, golf courses, greenways and more lure residents to new developments

By LIBBY CALLAWAY
For The Tennessean

When she and her family were living in Brentwood, Anne Waters scheduled trips every few months to get away from it all.

No longer.

"Don't tell my husband this," the mother of two says conspiratorially, "but this summer I didn't think I needed to go anywhere. I mean, we have this great resort right here."

Waters doesn't live in a tropical paradise; she and her family have a home in Westhaven, the deluxe housing development in Franklin that is among several area building projects setting the bar for neighborhood amenities. These include miles of lush hiking trails and greenways, deluxe community centers offering fitness classes and club meeting space, sprawling golf courses, and massive pool complexes and waterslides.

In terms of amenities, in neighborhood developments across Middle Tennessee, a nice, clean pool and quiet two-acre park are no longer enough to grab buyers' interest. Today, they want their bells and whistles to be shinier, more impressive — and conveniently located.

"What we're finding is the trend of small pocket parks is changing to large amenities centers in one central location, which is easier on the residents in terms of maintenance," says Frank Horton, development manager at CPS Land, which owns Providence, a community in Mt. Juliet.

Providence has two-and-a-half miles of paved pedestrian trails and four pools, one of which is a junior Olympic size — perfect for hosting swim competitions if and when the neighborhood starts a swim team, a popular trend among other Midstate developments. The pool area includes a playground and cabana, featuring a covered kitchenette and eating area that's accessible year-round to residents who want to host picnics there.

While this all sounds great, it's nothing compared to what's to come when the development launches its second phase of building, to be completed in 2008. The buyers at Lake Providence, as round two will be called, will have access to a deluxe $5 million, 23,000-square-foot Community Center surrounded by tennis courts, pools and bocce courts, all set beside a fully stocked 15-acre lake.

Horton says his team is simply giving the public what they ask for. "We as developers have put in infrastructure and we deliver lots to homebuild-ers," he says. "But builders are telling us that they want to see amenities that draw a new community. So we're constantly trying to decide what the market wants."

Jogging trails and pools are both great assets, he says. However, savvier shoppers are looking for extras such as those massive amenities centers with their plush mini-theaters, ballrooms for entertaining, and state-of-the-art exercise and computer facilities.

Thirty-six holes of golf is the big draw at Fairvue Plantation in Gallatin. Sitting on almost 1,000 acres spread over two peninsulas on Old Hickory Lake, the former horse-breeding plantation boasts an 11,000-square-foot plantation house as its main gathering place. There are restaurants, a swimming pavilion and boat slips.

"There's something about living on a golf course — you don't have be a golfer to enjoy the lifestyle," says Fairvue developer Chris Wicke. "Our buyer profile is all over the board. We've got people with young families, we've got retired folks, we've got several people who have a house here as a second home — and some are from as close as Nashville."

Others come from further away. "Middle Tennessee is becoming a real great place to retire," Wicke says, noting the influx of "halfbacks" who have settled down in Fairvue. "We're getting a lot of people who have historically gone to coastal areas, but with all the issues with hurricanes, they've moved halfway back." Thus, halfbacks.

This type of buyer is attracted to neighborhoods with the type of resort-style amenities they left when they fled the coast — pools, golf courses, organized activities. So big amenities packages that come with these new developments are very attractive.

In the case of Fairvue, residents do not automatically gain membership to the club upon buying a home; however, spaces are reserved for them should they want to join, and fees for residents are minimal.

In all but a few cases, amenities at Westhaven are gratis to residents.

In July, it opened a gigantic pool complex, featuring fun extras such as water cannons and giant plastic flowers that shower swimmers with water from their rotating petals, as well as a zero-entry beach-style shallow end. There's also a kiddie pool, an adult lap pool filled with salt water (it's softer and easier on your skin and hair than chlorinated pool water) and what's being called the largest private water slide in Tennessee.

A few yards away, this month the development will open the Westhaven Residents' Club, housed in a new 15,000-square-foot antebellum-style house. Though it bears more than a passing resemblance to Scarlett O'Hara's Civil War-era home Tara, the clubhouse is a state-of-the-art complex, filled with stocked exercise rooms, craft and meeting spaces, a theater and plenty of space for residents to throw parties. There's even a concierge desk to help neighbors coordinate their activities.

"Residents have done a great job of getting to know each other, but this will lend even more to that," says Jim Cheney, director of communications for Southern Land Co., owners of Westhaven.

Though big-time amenities certainly add to the value of a neighborhood, and therefore a home, they don't necessarily add cost to the house upfront. In most cases, regular fees take care of this on the back end.

Cheney says that Westhaven amenities are paid for via residents' homeowner's association dues, which run about $1,440 and $1,840 a year, depending on the size of the home lot.

He says big-time amenities "definitely increase the overall value and attraction to the neighborhood, which in turn impacts sales."

Like many modern communities with amenities centers, Westhaven has a dedicated activities director. Amy Law is charged with planning events that will bring residents together, such as club meetings, concerts and other gatherings, and "dive-in" movie nights at the pool, where swimmers watch family-friendly fare projected onto a screen above the pool from floats in the water.

"We really respond to what the residents want," says Law, who bases the activities and classes she plans on responses to questionnaires she sends out to the community.

Personal trainers and fitness classes such as yoga, Pilates and aerobics will have a minimal fee, though the workout room is free to all. After-school programs for kids, such as craft classes and study sessions, are planned by a children's program coordinator. There's a care center for children aged 3-6 on site as well.

Waters, who with her husband, Bob, has three kids between the ages of 4 and 10, says she expects the center to bring the community even closer together, in the same way the pool has in the few months it's been open. "It gets people out of their houses, and we get to know each other," she says.

And this is just the beginning, says Cheney, who says extended trails, a life-size game park with waist-high chess and checkers sets, a golf course and expanded tennis facilities are all planned.

"We've set a level of expectation in here that makes us kind of our own worst enemy," Cheney says. "Residents think, well, they've done such an extraordinary job, the next thing's going to be even more extraordinary. That keeps us challenged to go beyond what's typical in everything else we do.

"We just don't want it to be the wow factor and then walk way," he says. "We want people to be proud to have ownership."

So far, it seems to be working.

"We're just having a taste of what it's going to be like," Waters says. "It's always 10 times better than we think it's going to be." •