Thursday, July 30, 2015

Gran Paradiso: West Villages Improvement District Supervisory Board Meeting July 28, 2015

This past Tuesday (7/28/15) was the most recent WVID meeting. There wasn't much news to share. Basically, the items were updates or progress ongoing issues that have been discussed before. So, I am going to keep this brief...as I am also finishing my capstone project for the MBA/Real Estate and moving into Gran Paradiso (getting the keys tomorrow! Hooray!) You will really want to watch for the blog about the next meeting, though, or even attend it in person. It will be August 25th, and it will be the annual meeting on finance for the district.

July 28th, 2015, meeting highlights:

- Legal representation was authorized to move forward with plans for land annexation (the swap with Sarasota Memorial Health Care System) as the exchange has occurred.
- WVID is going to become a member of the North Port Area Chamber of Commerce.
- The purchase and sale agreement for the 32 acre park area is ready and moving forward (Paw park...another 'Hooray' here!).
- Index map and pattern book to be redone with forthcoming changes, i.e. the new district boundaries from land annexation (The index map is the district map and the pattern book is basically plans or "pattern" to follow for the community).
- Lennar estimates $700k in improvements on Renaissance Blvd., but were the district only has around $600k available for it.
- District manager brought up that discussion for ability to assess in IslandWalk expansion is to begin.
- Lennar is completing their landscaping around new area of coach homes, but the district acknowledged it needs to begin to address the appearance in that area along the 41 corridor.
- Lightning strikes and surges have caused some issues. Much of the district common area lighting is in disrepair and to be replaced.
- A second pedestrian node was recommended for Renaissance Blvd. for aesthetic balance.
- Rainy season has helped the water situation momentarily, but the problem is not solved. The district engineer and district committee chair will be working toward long-term solutions. They will start with the Northern part of the property first.
- Finally, two items were combined into one project - the sod replacement and landscaping improvements around district monuments. Valley Crest was the only service to attend a mandatory meeting to obtain bids for sod replacement, and their bid rose from $0.75 to $1.03 per square foot. It was determined that the district will negotiate with Valley Crest in hopes of finding ways to reduce the ultimate cost.

More details will be given on any items as I get them.

Don't forget to plan on attending the next meeting...August 25th, 2015, at 11am. The meetings are held at North Port City Hall (2nd floor) off of Sumter (Interstate 75 exit 182).

See you there!

Ali

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.

Please, check out my website, and contact me for more information!

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

WVID Blogspot

Gran Paradiso Blogspot

NewHomeVenice.com

My West Villages Site

My Gran Paradiso Site

My IslandWalk Site

Golf Homes of Venice

Friday, July 17, 2015

West Villages and The Ranch in the Observer Today, July 17, 2015

West Villages Blog

West Villages and Mattamy article in the Observer

‘City within a City’

BY: MARK GORDON | MANAGING EDITOR

July 17, 2015

- See more at: http://www.businessobserverfl.com/section/detail/city-within-a-city/#sthash.y7oYPhwr.dpuf

From http://www.businessobserverfl.com/section/detail/city-within-a-city/

When Marty Black was a young planner for the city of Tallahassee, in the 1990s, he wasn’t afraid to say no.

There was the time, at a meeting, when he rejected a Target store because it didn’t meet regulations. Right after his decision a city official leaned over and whispered to Black that the developer was the mayor’s significant other, so that might have been a bad call. Black, a zoning administrator, was unmoved.

“You have to do what you say you’re going to do,” says Black, “and you have to do the right thing for the right reasons.”

Black, who has worked for government and developers in a 30-year career, says that approach, combined with an easy-going, even-keeled demeanor, works well. Says the cowboy boots-wearing Black: “I can go up to anyone who I’ve worked with or against and greet them with a handshake and a hug.”

Black, 53, seeks one last hug and handshake with his latest project, what he calls a career pinnacle: Turning Thomas Ranch, a 9,650-acre property in south Sarasota County, into a live, work and play development that can rival the giants of the master-planned community industry statewide. Plans include up to 20,000 homes and at least 3 million square feet of non-residential space.

Florida is a national leader in master-planned communities like this. On the Gulf Coast, the list of established master-planned communities includes FishHawk Ranch in Hillsborough County and Lakewood Ranch in east Manatee County. There’s also Babcock Ranch in Charlotte and Lee counties, a project slowed by the recession.

Black says the first selling point for the project is what any visitor sees right away. The site, off River Road and Tamiami Trail, part in the city of North Port and part in unincorporated Sarasota County, is massive. In an area called the West Villages, Thomas Ranch is 10 minutes from Manasota Beach and some of it borders the Myakka River. “This isn’t a piece of virgin Florida we are calling a ranch just so we could cut down some trees,” quips Black.

The project is big in another way: Ontario, Canada-based Mattamy Homes and some minority partners bought the property from Thomas Enterprises in May 2014 for $86.25 million.
The ownership includes local minority partner Vanguard Land, a Sarasota-based firm founded by John Peshkin, former CEO and president of the North American unit of Taylor Woodrow. The entity that oversees the partnership is The Ranch Land Partners, and the project, for short, is simply The Ranch.

The deal for the land was the largest single land residential purchase, in acres, in the country in 2014, says Black. It was also the largest U.S. purchase ever for Mattamy Homes, a $1.7 billion dollar firm currently in rapid expansion mode in Florida. It bested a deal earlier in 2014 for 3,800 acres in Jacksonville.

Mattamy corporate executives call the Thomas Ranch purchase opportunistic. “This is unique,” says Mattamy COO Brian Johnston. “It’s not something you start out the year saying ‘I’d like to have 10,000 acres.’”

Yet challenges loom. For one, North Port, while fast growing in recent years, was an area leader in foreclosures and defaults during the bust. And master-planned communities nationally have recently seen a decline in overall sales. Total home sales at Lakewood Ranch, for example, dropped from 618 in 2013 to 493 last year, a 20% decrease. Lakewood Ranch remains a top 10 master-planned community in the country in sales.

Timely move
Details of the master-planned community, include:

Space for the 20,000 homes, built over 40 years. Construction could begin by October on the first community, The Preserve at The West Villages, which will be about 100 homes. Next up is the Renaissance at the West Villages, about 700 homes. A unit of Mattamy Homes will be among the homebuilders, but The Ranch Land Partners will also sell lots to other builders.

Hoover Realty agent Ali Johnston, a specialist in south Sarasota County, hopes The Ranch, combined with smaller nearby projects, like Gran Paradiso from Lennar and IslandWalk from DiVosta Homes, will prove timely. That part of the county has been a recent leader in permits pulled for new home starts, say Mattamy officials. “North Port struggled for years with the recession,” says Johnston. “Now you can really get a lot of bang for your buck.”

About 3 million square feet of non-residential space. The first phase, says Black, will be a Main Street like-center with retail, restaurants with outdoor seating and a grocery component. Streets will be walking/biking friendly. Construction on that phase could begin by the end of 2016. “We’re not going to do a traditional strip center, and make it like everything else you see,” says Black.

Sarasota Memorial Hospital will have an urgent care facility and medical offices;

Mattamy officials have offered to work with Sarasota County schools on a site, 40-50 acres, for a campus that could go up to or include high school. Higher education is already there, with the State College of Florida-Venice campus down the road from The Ranch entrance.

At least 70 acres will be preserved for conservation, and plans call for walking and biking trails.

More than land
Black says despite the project’s heft, and potential, he can’t shake the biggest challenge — that people don’t know it’s there.

He’s begun to address that. He and his staff give 90-minute tours to chamber and area business officials. And late last year Black hired Sondra Guffey, a former Bay News 9 TV anchor and head of communications for Lakewood Ranch developer Schroeder-Manatee Ranch. Guffey heads up marketing for The Ranch.

A close cousin of marketing, in a project with this scope, of course, is public perception in the battle developers often face against residents and community groups. The strategy there, says Black, is to remain transparent, honest and upfront. “We’re not just here to flip houses and flip commercial real estate,” Black says. “We understand how to build a city within a city. We are here to stay.”

Black isn’t only dispensing information about The Ranch. He’s also gathering it. For instance, he and his team spoke with dozens of real estate agents about the intricacies of the community. Says Black: “We talked to Realtors about people who were here last season who didn’t buy and why they didn’t buy.”

There’s also more to The Ranch than home sales and land planning. The property has a ranching history that dates back to the 1930s. Prior to Mattamy it was used for sod, watermelon, citrus, hay and grazing, among other agriculture activities.

Black and his team continue to run an agriculture business on the site. That includes wetland harvesting and selling hay and road aggregate materials. He recently hired Punta Gorda-based Three Suns Ranch to manage the property’s 700 heads of cattle.

All of that work, from ranch to research, isn’t cheap. Black says the partnership currently pays at least $1 million a year in carrying costs, taxes and fees, and has spent another $1 million on ranch gear and equipment. “It’s not just a land development play,” says Black. “We will be in the agriculture business for 20 or 30 years while we develop the property.”

Gran Paradiso in the Herald Tribune Today, July 17, 2015

From http://realestate.heraldtribune.com/2015/07/17/market-snapshot-gran-paradiso-in-north-port/

Market Snapshot: Gran Paradiso in North Port

By Chris Angermann , Herald-Tribune

/ Friday, July 17, 2015

Gran Paradiso more than lives up to its name. Everything about the revived, maintenance-free development spells extravagance, opulent living and natural beauty on a grand scale — with the exception of the houses and attached villas, which are handsome and elegant but by no means over the top.

Photo Gallery: More Herald Photos of Gran Paradiso

A central island lined with majestic palm trees leads up to the Tuscan-style entrance gate and clubhouse, which would look at home in a Cecil B. DeMille epic. Fitness trails meander around the lakes and through nature preserves. The community abuts a protected gopher tortoise conservation area. Sandhill cranes, deer and other wildlife abound.

The gated community in the West Villages of North Port sits on the north side of U.S. 41, about three miles south of Venice. It was master-planned by Sam Rodgers in the mid-2000s. It was an ambitious development, with 1,999 units situated on more than 370 acres. Rodgers put in the streets, ponds, utilities and other infrastructure, and, along with Lee Wetherington Homes, put up models and started to build semi-custom, luxury residences.

The timing could not have been worse, however, as the ambitious housing development succumbed to the Great Recesssion. Grand Paradiso remained mostly empty and fell into disrepair. For more than half a decade, the landscaping consisted of overgrown weeds that became habitat to all kinds of critters, including wild boars and the occasional Florida panther. The handful of owners who initially bought and built there were less than pleased.

That changed in early 2014 when Lennar Corp., the Miami-based company that is one of the nation’s largest home builders, bought the development. Lennar paid $26.6 million for the 370 acres of Gran Paradiso and paid off the back taxes and assessments owed. It also purchased 164 lots from Lee Wetherington Homes for $4 million.

In the past year and a half, Lennar finished the clubhouse, opened a sales center and has been busy selling properties and building new homes.

“I’ve seen such a huge improvement,” says Amy Terzuoli, a sales associate with Premier Sotheby’s International Realty. “Homes are selling like hotcakes. The area is really taking off.”

Terzuoli is the listing agent for one of the few resale properties available in the community — one of the four original attached luxury villas that Sam Rodgers Homes built. The three-bedroom former model has lavish interiors. With Florida Green Building Coalition and Energy Star certifications for energy efficiency, it is priced at $359,000.

But most of the residences are new construction. Lennar offers single-family homes, luxury estate homes, maintenance-free villas, coach or manor homes, and townhouses — all in Tuscan style relating to the overall architectural theme of Gran Paradiso. They range in size from three to five bedrooms and from 1,340 to 3,800 square feet. Luxury features include granite countertops, stainless-steel appliances, crown molding, brick pavers and more. Prices range from the $200,000s to $600,000s.

Sam Rodgers and its Arthur Rutenberg franchise are still involved, offering semi-custom built homes ranging from $389,000 to more than $900,000.

“It’s a wide range of price points — something for everyone,” says Terzuoli.

Each section has its own homeowner’s association plus a master fee. Dues for the houses are $1,855 and include all community amenities, basic cable, and lawn maintenance. Villas, coach and townhomes dues are $250 to $300 a month and also include landscaping.

Amenities include tennis courts, pickle ball courts, and a free-form swimming pool with poolside cabanas. The magnificent clubhouse has lofty ceilings and game rooms with billiards and card tables, a media center, a sauna and a steam room, a massaging room, and a big, ultra-modern fitness center. There are plans to hire an onsite activities director.

“Gran Paradiso has a full-time resort atmosphere,” says Terzuoli. “It feels like being on vacation all the time.”

The growing number of residents include working professionals, retirees and families. “Residents are primarily baby boomers — a lot of people from up north who are done with the snow and ready to make the big move to Florida,” says Terzuoli. “There are also a number of younger families with children.”

The West Villages is an up-and-coming area, close to the Gulf beaches, nearby championship golf courses, and within easy, 10-minute reach of Interstate 75. “When the Town Center gets further developed, there will be shops and restaurants close-by,” says Terzuoli. “There’s something here for all age groups.”

She expects it will take around seven years for the community to be fully built-out. “It’s great to be able to be in an affordable place in a nice country club-like setting,” she says. “Every time I go there, I get a good vibe.”

(article from Sarasota Herald Tribune)

Thursday, July 2, 2015

Gran Paradiso: Greater District WVID Growth and Plans

http://wvidfl.blogspot.com/2015/07/wvid-west-villages-improvement-district.html

The West Villages Improvement District definitely survived the recession, and now it is on a springboard to be thriving region full of life, culture, and vitality. DiVosta's appeal and fortitude in their IslandWalk community provided the foundation of endurance that propelled the district's survival. Lennar's acquisition and reopening of Gran Paradiso spurred much of the district revival as a result. And, now, Mattamy's development plans as well as involvement with the greater district plans execution are seeing to it that the realization of the district as a masterfully designed village community of several adjoining neighborhoods. Information about their plans is finally coming to light.

Their first neighborhood is to be the "Preserve" with 110 larger lots and homes for a more tight-knit, small community. It will be a luxury level of estate homes with 3-car garages, etc, boasting plans that have a more 'coastal' style compared to the Italian-inspired IslandWalk and Gran Paradiso or the Key West feel of Grand Palm's elevations. Groundbreaking is anticipated in September or October of this year for the Preserve neighborhood.

The second planned development of the former ranch property is called the "Renaissance." It is to be a larger community and to offer a homebuyers with a selection of builders' and their respective plans. The builder selection has yet to be released, but I will let you know what will be available as soon as I do.

There are also a couple of items of specific interest for residents in the district. Many will be happy to note that numerous resident and prospective homebuyer requests for a dog park have been heard, and it is in the plans for "sooner rather than later" implementation.

Other inquiries regarding the previously promised district shopping, restaurants, and service quarter have been answered as well. You will be happy to note that is also in back on track as part of the grand scheme. It is not to be the originally planned Town Center location, but it has been relocated and re-envisioned with increased walkability characteristics and enhanced aesthetics. It is projected to potentially break ground in about a year.

Further, integration with and accommodation of SCF offerings, along with a future Sarasota Memorial, incorporated into the design of district amenities and community features are to offer current and future community residents robust opportunities for lifelong learning, volunteerism, and involvement.

I cannot begin to tell you how thrilled that that I am to see the plans being implemented and excitement building for this rapidly growing area. It is coming into its own at long last. We are now witnessing the vision of the West Villages Improvement District finally unfold as the master-planned, active enclave that it was always intended to be. A dynamic and cohesive community comprised of several distinctly unique neighborhoods that are suited for many various tastes and style preferences.

If you are considering purchasing a home in this community, I can assist you. My services and resources are of no cost to you, and in most instances, I am able to save home buyers time and 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 my support with your transaction serves also to fund these resources to keep them available for you and others on an ongoing basis.