The
folks who developed the standard in southern golf communities, Reynolds
Plantation in upstate Georgia, are putting their mark -- literally -- on
Laurelmor, the high-end community near Blowing Rock, NC, that the firm took
over in the wake of Ginn Resorts' major loan default. Laurelmor is now Reynolds Blue Ridge. The company announced the change, along
with other information about plans for the community, in a posting in the last
few days at the community's web site, according to Toby Tobin, who has followed
the Ginn saga closely at his web site GoToby.com.
The
announcement comes as a mixed blessing for those unfortunate souls who plunked
down an average of $625,000 per home site during the ill-fated Ginn era. Reynolds is a sharp outfit by
Laurelmor owners dropped an average of $625,000 for their home sites. New pricing puts the average at around $355,000 (assuming an equal number of houses in each price range).
reputation, and they
would not be taking on the Laurelmor project without a solid plan for
success. Unfortunately for current
property owners, that means cutting lot prices to a range of $139,900 to $569,900, or an average price of $354,900
(if an equal number of properties across the range). It could take the better part of a couple of decades for
those early properties to regain all that lost value, but with Reynolds
involved, at least some value remains.
In order to
encourage property sales, Ginn had waived initiation fees for the golf course
for the first 179 property owners.
Reynolds announced it will honor that agreement, and that memberships
current and future will have a "generational" option, which includes
grandparents, children and grandchildren in the membership. Reynolds is offering other incentives,
including a home site exchange program, to assuage the pain of those first
owners, which is more than owners in other bankrupted communities are getting. The cautionary note here, as always, is
to proceed very carefully when buying the promise of future amenities in a new
golf community. And to know the difference between hype and solid, sustainable performance.
You
can read Toby Tobin's article at GoToby.com.