Herald Tribune article 5/26/2015
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20150526/article/150529781?p=all&tc=pgall&tc=ar
Mattamy nears start of major South County development
A 30-acre lake on what used to be called Thomas Ranch, and
Taylor Ranch before that. Mattamy Homes will develop thousands of acres between
Venice and North Port at what is now called The Ranch.
STAFF PHOTO / HAROLD BUBIL
By Harold Bubil
Published: Tuesday, May 26, 2015 at 1:36 p.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, May 26, 2015 at 1:36 p.m.
Sarasota has its West of the Trail. Bradenton has its great
Northwest.
Now, North Port will have its “West of the River.”
The West Villages, boosted by Mattamy Homes $100 million
commitment, is expected to give North Port a middle- and upper-middle-class
appeal as it develops 20,000 homes in the next 40 years.
“Depending on how it's done — the degree of sophistication
and upgrades — it could create a boom,” said Realtor Robert Goldman, who sells
South County real estate for Michael Saunders & Co. “It could go a long way
to helping to make North Port what it has always hoped to be, but has not
materialized.”
With preliminary price points from $250,000 to $500,000,
Mattamy's houses, villas and condominiums will be several steps above the
typical house in North Port's core area east of the Myakka River.
With Gran Paradiso, IslandWalk and Sarasota National already
in place, and still developing, the West Villages is on course to become a
regional real estate powerhouse in the coming decades, with both the number of
homes and their increased values.
“It is west of I-75, near the Gulf,” Goldman said. “The
critical item is to roll it out slowly.”
Goldman said the expansion of the West Villages will have a
big impact on existing home sales.
“How will that impact resales of homes in existing
communities?” he asked. “In Florida, when a home is more than 15 years old,
people begin to think of it as an older home or older community.”
Thousands of homes
Canadian homebuilding giant Mattamy Homes is progressing
with plans to develop about 75 percent of the 9,600 acres it owns of the former
Thomas Ranch. (About a quarter of the vast tract is wetlands and will not be
developed).
This could create nearly 25,000 homes on what is being
called “The Ranch,” and perhaps add 70,000 people or more. A year ago, that
figure was estimated at about 11,000 residential units.
But recently, the North Port City Commission approved the
first reading of an ordinance to amend the city's comprehensive plan to
increase density on The Ranch. Builders could construct 16,000 units (up from
the previously approved 10,400), with perhaps another 4,000 to 9,000 in
Sarasota County. The ordinance was approved unanimously, but it is not in
effect because it has to pass muster with the state.
Site permitting and design work is underway, with plans
submitted to the Southwest Florida Water Management District for approval.
Bulldozers could go to work in September or October on the first two
neighborhoods.
“Mattamy's ownership ultimately will surpass Sarasota and
Venice in size,” said Marty Black, a former Venice city manager and general
manager of The Ranch Land Partners LLLP. “Two thirds of this is in the City of
North Port. The bottom third is in Sarasota County.
“It will significantly impact North Port components.”
Roads, for example: Mattamy is planning for that, both for
daily traffic and storm evacuation.
“Our intent is to create a community where the future
residents won't need to go out and get onto River Road, or even U.S. 41, unless
they are leaving the area by creating an internal transportation network and
trail system,” Black said.
But traffic jams are not imminent. Many South County
residents will hardly notice as Mattamy moves ahead slowly.
“We are starting north-to-south with development,” said
Black. “We have three neighborhoods that are in the City of North Port
development process right now.”
They are on the northeast segment of The Ranch, north of the
Tamiami Trail near the junction of River Road and West Villages Parkway.
“We will sell off two neighborhoods to other builders in the
course of this year,” Black said. He is working on the state construction
permitting process now.
The Mattamy neighborhood, with 110 lots, will be called The
Preserve at the West Villages and include houses that the company is designing
just for this project. A model will be ready in February of next year.
“You will have larger homes with three-car garages, and
maybe paired villas or stacked flats,” Black said.
Just to the south, at River Road and U.S. 41, the second
subdivision is tentatively called The Renaissance at the West Villages. The
Ranch will sell that section.
“We are in discussions with other builders,” Black said. “We
are looking at terms sheets and trying to match it with who is already here and
what product is already here. It is a true master-planned approach — we want to
offer a variety. We don't want to have all the builders with the same product
competing with each other.”
The long term
South of U.S. 41, don't expect to see a lot of change
anytime soon.
“It will take 40 or more years to reach build-out,” Black
said in a recent interview at The Ranch's modest headquarters — an old house on
a dirt road that overlooks a 30-acre lake.
“We have a patient perspective,” he added. “This was a
long-term purchase. We are working with a 30- to 40-year pro forma. It is not
like we are trying to flip the property in the next three or five years. The
idea is we are going to have an active ranch operation for several decades. We
are committed to that.”
So those 700 head of cattle, including bison, being raised
by Three Suns Ranch of Punta Gorda, will continue to graze. Windswept purplish
grass, harvested as hay, will sway in vast meadows. Aggregate mining also will
continue. There's even a beekeeping operation.
“There is a tremendous amount of land, so yes, it could
handle it,” said Goldman, the Michael Saunders agent. “The issue is how much
growth are we realistically going to anticipate, notwithstanding the baby
boomers, as they age and come down here?
“And how will that impact resales of homes nearby?”
Meet Mattamy
The Ranch could become Mattamy's most populated development.
It already is its largest North American property in size.
Mattamy acquired the land — the remainder of the former
Berry, then Taylor and later Thomas family ranch lands — for $86.5 million in
2014 from Fourth Quarter Properties. An Atlanta-based land-development company,
Fourth Quarter was bludgeoned by the real estate bust and abandoned the
project.
As the general manager, Black oversees The Ranch for the
partnership that includes Mattamy and Vanguard Land Development &
Investment, a locally owned land developer headed by managing partner John
Peshkin.
With the approval of its lawyers, Mattamy is calling itself
the “largest privately owned home-building company” in North America, said
Brent Carey, Mattamy's vice president for communications.
The company was formed in 1978 and sold two houses that
year. Since then, it has built about 62,000, and will build around 5,000 this
fiscal year, Carey said.
“This will be by far and away the biggest piece of property”
for Mattamy, Carey said. “It was the largest residential land purchase in 2014
in the entire country.”
Canadians — Mattamy certainly hopes to lure some of them to
buy in the West Villages — are familiar with Milton, a city of 100,000 outside
of Toronto, where Mattamy has built 12,000 units in the past 10 years.
“A third of the town lives in a Mattamy home,” Carey said.
“That is the biggest individual master-planned community. It has 17 phases.
This, with 20,000 units, surpasses that. Now, there is more to go at Milton —
another 8,000 maybe 10,000 units.”
Mattamy is in a definite expansion mode, building in Ottawa,
Calgary and Edmonton in Canada. In the U.S., it has four projects in Florida,
as well as Tucson and Phoenix in Arizona, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Charlotte,
North Carolina.
Other Florida developments include Harmony at Lakewood Ranch
and The Enclave at Forest Lakes, on the abandoned golf course and country club
property on Beneva Road in Sarasota. The company also has projects in Orlando,
Jacksonville and Riverview, southeast of Tampa. Prices there range from
$223,000 to $321,000.
In five years, CEO and lone Mattamy shareholder Peter Gilgan
told Toronto's Financial Post, “Our ambition is to get to about 50 percent” of
the company's business in the U.S.
“There are lots of cross-marketing opportunities in this
property,” Carey said of marketing to Canadian buyers. “Proximity to the beach
and different housing types. You are looking for your retirement home or second
home, and it has a high brand valuation.”
The traffic
A major concern surrounding any development is traffic.
For a master-planned community of this size, roads are an
essential part of the plan.
“We anticipate a four-lane West Villages Parkway will
connect to Pine Street” in Englewood, Black said. “We are creating three
east-west and three north-sound roadways so everyone doesn't have to go out
onto U.S. 41 or River Road (also to be four-laned) to move around as this
develops.”
“But getting to Sarasota on I-75 will be just as easy as
from Lakewood Ranch,” Goldman said. “I can see where it can be the next big
growth area, and a mini-city. But it will take time, and smart heads to make
that happen.”
The Ranch will have more than houses and villas. Commercial
development is a big part of subsequent phases, “and not just on 41,” Black
said.
“We are looking at integrating a blueways component to link
neighborhoods. We have frontage on the Myakka River, so we will have a river
club so residents in non-motorized craft can get out and explore the Myakka.”
The Ranch now has a 30-acre lake, but Black expects to
create several more large lakes and link them to provide both water management
and recreation for residents.
“We are going to try to create a connection to the water
features,” Black said. “People just love to congregate around water.
“We will tie health/wellness into the plan. We can't just
look at this as 'people will play golf.' We have to provide a full range of
health and wellness activities and lifestyle components on the property.”
The Ranch will be “at the collision of two demographics,”
Black said — with an average age of about 68 in Venice and 40 in North Port.
“So we are going to have pieces, over time, that will serve both of those
markets. People will be able to move up and move down and never leave the community.”
Looking ahead
The second phase of development will be south of U.S. 41,
with homes built around a Main Street Center.
“It will have more of that traditional Main Street design —
Frederick Law Olmsted park design components mixed with John Nolen's urban
designs,” Black said.
Black also has reached out to schools and churches to make
sure their needs are met as The Ranch's master plan is developed.
He is speaking with the leaders of State College of Florida,
which already has a campus there.
“You are offering four-year degrees. Do you have enough
land? Does your campus plan anticipate the growth?” Black has asked.
“The last thing we want to do is plan around it and not
anticipate what their needs are,” he said.
The Diocese of Venice owns a small parcel at The Ranch, but
“they may want a different spot because they may do a church and a school,”
Black said. “I talked with (county) school board about a K-8 site. They are
projecting less demand for a high school. We are waiting for study from the School
Board.”
It may show that The Ranch will be mostly older residents.
If you are considering
purchasing a home in this community, please let me assist you. My services and
extensive resources are of no cost to you, and in most instances, I am able to
save home buyers some money. I
do not work for any of the wonderful builders in the West Villages Improvement
District, or any others for that matter. My services and information (including
the resources provided on all of my websites) are
wholly independent of these developers. No other independent professional is
more knowledgeable about this community, and enlisting me to assist with your
transaction serves also to fund these resources to keep them available for you
and others on an ongoing basis.
Look forward to hearing
from you!
Ali
Aileen “Ali” Johnston,
MHA
(currently working on
an MBA in Real Estate)
Realtor®, Hoover Realty
LLC
Mobile: 941-539-5771
