A bit of altitude sickness may have affected the judgment of those who paid seven-figures for mountain properties at Laurelmor, the ill-fated golf community in the Blue Ridge Mountains that Developer Bobby Ginn was forced to abandon in the wake of a $675 million loan default. The average price of the Ginn lots once sold for $600,000 but now comes word that the new developers have reset prices between $125,000 and $175,000 for those same lots. As the Winston-Salem Journal puts it, “That means [a] buyer could purchase the land and build a home for less than $500,000, less than the cost of the lot alone in Laurelmor.”
A subsidiary of Reynolds Plantation has taken over the 6,200-acre property near Blowing Rock, NC, and renamed it Reynolds Blue Ridge. Work on the golf course, which was partially begun under Ginn, will recommence next year; Rees Jones is the designer. Only 10 homes are built in Reynolds Blue Ridge so far; after his lavish launch party in 2006, Ginn announced the sale of 240 lots. Given the new price levels and Reynolds' fine reputation for its signature Georgia golf community, Reynolds Blue Ridge is worthy of consideration for those with some patient capital and modest risk tolerance.
You can read the Winston-Salem Journal article by clicking here.