VOLUME 25 NUMBER 6 APRIL-JUNE 1995 RESIDENTIAL COUNTRY CLUB OF THE SOUTH ATLANTA, GEORGIA PROJECT TYPE An 899-acre, luxury golf course community, featuring a private country club, a Jack Nicklaus-designed 18-hole golf course, and 24-hour security including staffed security gates. Homes range in size from 3,500 to 12,000 square feet, and in price from $410,000 to over $3 million. SPECIAL FEATURES Golf course community Security gate Luxury housing DEVELOPER/LAND PLANNER Nicklaus/Sierra Development Corporation 15436 North Florida Avenue Suite 200 Tampa, Florida 33613 813-963-5856 CLUB MANAGER/DEVELOPER (Developer of final phase parcel only) Simanco Tampa, Florida 813-963-5856 GOLF COURSE ARCHITECT Jack Nicklaus Golf Services West Palm Beach, Florida CLUBHOUSE ARCHITECT Diedrich Architects and Associates Atlanta, Georgia
GENERAL DESCRIPTION The 899-acre Country Club of the South (CCOS) community, begun in 1984, has carefully targeted and successfully developed a very lucrative niche at the upper end of the Atlanta housing market. Its developer Nicklaus/Sierra Development Corporation believed there was an underserved market in the north Atlanta area that was looking for a secure, high-end, luxury golf course community environment with homes selling for $350,000 to $1 million and up. Prior to the start of Country Club of the South, no such community existed in the area, and CCOS was able to pioneer this concept, achieving some of the area's highest residential lot values as high as $689,400 in 1995 for a 1.5-acre golf course lot. The high-quality country club/golf course and the security provided were two of the keys to success. The Nicklaus name and design expertise were critical in establishing the golf course and club as an unusually desirable golf experience, which has greatly enhanced the desirability of the surrounding community as well. The 24-hour secured environment provided a level of comfort and safety not previously offered in the Atlanta area and especially appealing to upper-income homebuyers. These factors, together with an attractive, heavily wooded site; a desirable residential suburban location; and an experienced developer able to deliver a high quality community environment, have made Country Club of the South one of the most prestigious places to live in the Atlanta area. Homes currently sell in a price range from $410,000 to $3 million. THE SITE AND DEVELOPMENT PROCESS Country Club of the South was the third project started by Nicklaus/Sierra Development Corporation. The company was founded in 1983 by Jack Nicklaus and Bob Sierra, building on their respective strengths in golf course design and community development. Before forming the company, both of the principals had been involved in separate planned community developments of their own. The project is located 30 miles north of downtown Atlanta in northeast Fulton County, an area that until recently was largely rural. The property consists of heavily wooded rolling hills bordering the Chatahoochee River and is surrounded largely by other recently developed residential communities. On the south side, the property is adjacent to Jones Bridge Park on the Chatahoochee River, which is owned and operated by the National Park Service. A county road serving this park originally ran through the middle of the site, and one of the initial objectives in the development process was to reroute the road to allow the entire parcel to be consolidated and served by private roads, a necessity if the community was to be secured with fences and a gate. Assembling the site involved the acquisition of one large parcel and numerous smaller ones, the latter primarily along the park road frontage. The acquisition of these smaller parcels was critical to securing a controlled environment and was costly in some instances. The larger parcel was acquired from a developer who had begun planning a residential subdivision on the property. Most of the land was zoned for residential development, and there were no major hurdles in the approval process other than the rerouting of the road. All of the primary parcels were assembled by March 1984, and construction began shortly thereafter. A final 44-acre parcel located adjacent to the golf clubhouse, along Old Alabama Road, was added in 1994 and is now planned as the final phase of the development. In phasing the project, the developer believed it was imperative to build the golf course before marketing the homes to establish from the outset a proper level of credibility and quality for the community. A completed and operational Jack Nicklaus golf course allowed the developer to achieve much higher initial lot sale prices than would have been possible otherwise. Upfront costs were financed from equity and loans from an Ohio-based savings and loan. Following completion of the golf course and clubhouse, lot development and home construction were phased in a clockwise fashion around the perimeter of the site, starting near the golf club. PLANNING AND DESIGN
An essential first step in establishing the plan for the community was to reroute the existing county road that ran through the site and that provided access to the Jones Bridge Park along the Chatahoochee River. A deal was struck with the county government and the National Park Service to reroute the road to the southern edge of the site. The developer built and paid for the new road, and also granted riverfront land between the new road and the river to the park service, allowing the park to be expanded in a linear fashion along the river. Once this deal was struck, the site could be planned and designed with an entirely private and secured street system, a critical aspect in the project's positioning as a secure and exclusive community. The street system includes two staffed gatehouse entrances as well as a separate entrance to the golf club and a primary loop road from which numerous long and short culs-de-sac and secondary roads are branched. Streets are fairly narrow 24 feet wide throughout the community and are accented with handsome wrought iron street lights, complemented by custom wrought iron mailboxes, which every homeowner is required to purchase. Homes are strategically located to promote a feeling of seclusion on each and every homesite. To preserve the many fine trees on the site, the community's Architectural Review Committee requires approval before any trees with a trunk diameter of more than six inches (at four feet above natural grade) are removed from a building lot. To ensure that the overall beauty is preserved and enhanced, the Architectural Review Committee also has the authority to approve and disapprove landscape plans for individual residences and requires the use of indigenous plants, trees, and shrubs as much as possible. Landscape plans must be submitted with the initial site plan for each home. Generous setbacks on all golf course homesites provide the most strategic golf views possible while assuring that the visibility of homes does not affect the golf experience. In an effort to preserve much of the natural integrity and beauty of the land, the golf course and residential areas were designed to conform to the natural terrain, with minimal disturbance to the topography. The par 72, 18-hole golf course, designed by Jack Nicklaus, is laid out in a necklace fashion throughout the community, allowing the course to follow stream valleys and other low-lying areas where possible and maximizing the number of lots that front on the course; only four of the 18 fairways parallel each other. Despite the large area covered by the golf course, extensive use of bridges and tunnels ensure that golfers cross only two streets throughout the entire 18 holes. The golf clubhouse includes a main dining room; a men's grill; two private dining rooms; men's and women's locker facilities, showers, saunas, and card rooms; and a golf shop and club storage area. In addition to offering the best in country club amenities, the developer was determined that the community would provide a safe and enjoyable environment for all its children, regardless of their club affiliation. To achieve this, the developer provided two significant parcels of property for two community recreation centers. The East Park offers facilities for the enjoyment of all residents, including a competition swimming pool and sundeck, tennis courts, a football/soccer field, a children's playground, and a pavilion for get-togethers and parties. The second park, located at the community's western boundary, includes tennis courts, a basketball court, a tot lot, and a pavilion. Custom estate homes in the community typically are located on one-acre lots and range in size from 4,000 to 12,000 square feet. In addition to the custom estate homes, the community features four low-maintenance, single-family home (manor home) neighborhoods. These neighborhoods offer detached, single-family residences of similar architectural character, which are built in small groups or clusters on desirable locations. Homes are typically on 11,000-square-foot lots and range in size from 3,500 to 4,500 square feet. Each village is distinguished by its own landscaped entrance. MARKETING AND MANAGEMENT The community is made up of approximately a 50/50 split between custom homes and speculative homes. Approximately 15 featured builders have been working in the project, most of them high-end, small production builders. Although homesite purchasers are not required to use a CCOS featured builder, they are strongly encouraged to do so to promote
responsibility and adherence to design guidelines; home designs are carefully reviewed to ensure they conform to overall community guidelines and objectives. Sales at the community began in June 1985, and as of January 1993, 516 homesites had been sold (an average of 6.6 sales per month) with an average sale price of $127,050. In 1993, CCOS accounted for 65 percent of the total sales in the luxury housing market in north Fulton County (defined as the part of Fulton County north of Interstate 285). Marketing is heavily directed toward realtors, as a large part of the new home sales in the project as is true generally in Atlanta are done through realtors rather than through direct sales. General advertising in newspapers and through direct mail was used when the project was just getting started, but more recently, the project has relied more on realtors and on good community and public relations to bolster its referral business. The golf course itself has been an important element in attracting interest to the project. As the site of the PGA Senior Tour's nationwide championship for four years, the golf course has received significant exposure through TV coverage. While many golf/country club communities are marketed and categorized as communities for empty-nesters or retirees, CCOS is a community that attracts families of all ages. Results from a 1992 survey of property owners show that the average couple at Country Club of the South is between 42 and 46 years old, and that 65 percent of all resident families have children, whose average age is 11 years. The community has become the home of many prominent Atlanta citizens, including many baseball and football stars. Nearly half of the buyers in the community have moved here from out of state; these buyers are attracted to the community in part because they can gain acceptance faster than in the older, moneyed areas of Atlanta. The management of the community includes a 24-hour limited access program, including a staffed gatehouse and 24-hour roving patrols to act as a deterrent to criminal activity and to offer constant public safety services to residents. The Property Owner's Association (POA) staffs the gatehouse and the safety patrol and provides for maintenance and repair of the 11 miles of community roads (all of which it owns); the association also provides landscaping and maintenance for the community common areas, the gatehouse, the 5.5 miles of perimeter and community fencing, and the community recreation centers. To preserve the integrity of the community's landscaping, the POA also owns and operates its own greenhouses, each of which is capable of raising and housing 20,000 plants and flowers. Each spring and fall, over 40,000 annual flowers are planted in the more than 100 flower beds throughout the community; in addition, 2,000 mums are planted each fall and 20,000 bulbs are planted each year. The country club and golf course is managed by Simanco, a newly formed entity that Robert Sierra has created to take over the interests of the Nicklaus/Sierra Development Corporation, which he bought out from Jack Nicklaus in 1994. Simanco is also managing the development of the final parcel acquired in 1994. EXPERIENCE GAINED Providing a secure environment can be crucial in the development of upper-income planned communities. Buyers in this price range want to make certain that their substantial investment in their home and belongings is safe, and they are willing to pay for security to assure that they and their children can move about the community without fear of crime. A golf course designed by a legendary golfer and widely known golf course architect was an all-important marketing and positioning tool for this luxury community. The Nicklaus name and the quality of the course positioned the project in an exclusive niche and set the community apart from the outset; the golf course helped draw buyers out to the community during the early stages, when it was perceived to be in an outlying location, and helped differentiate it from the competition once the location became more
established and competitive projects were emerging. Involvement in all aspects of community activity has allowed the developer significant opportunity for positive public relations and has fostered in the buyers a strong sense of community and identity.
PROJECT DATA LAND USE INFORMATION Site Area: 899 acres 1 Total Units Planned: 741 Total Lots Developed: 741 Total Housing Units Completed: 520 Gross Density: 1.21 Average Net Density:.82 LAND USE PLAN Acres Percent of Site Detached residential 610.17 68% Roads 29.33 3 Common open space 14.00 2 Wetlands 35.50 4 Golf course 210.00 23 Total 899.00 100% RESIDENTIAL UNIT INFORMATION Unit Type Average Lot Size (Square Feet) Unit Size (Square Feet) Number of Units Planned/Built Range of Current Sales Prices Manor (Cluster) Homes Estate Homes 10,890 3,500-4,500 156/134 $410,000-$569,000 43,560 4,000-12,000 585/386 $560,000-$3,000,000 COUNTRY CLUB/GOLF COURSE Course Length: 18 holes; par 72; 7,044 yards Clubhouse: 48,000 square feet Golf Membership 2 : Property owners: $29,000 Nonproperty owners: $42,500 Monthly Golf Dues: $280 DEVELOPMENT COST INFORMATION (TO DATE) Site Acquisition Cost $16,459,543 Site Improvement Costs Excavation/grading $3,036,048 Sewer/water/drainage 4,265,085
Paving/curbs/sidewalks 2,428,168 Landscaping (streetscapes) 823,884 Golf course 3,989,131 Other (includes: predevelopment costs,appraisals, other utilities, permitting, etc.) 3,989,560 Total $18,531,876 Construction Costs Clubhouse and associated facilities $8,002,148 Guardhouses 286,666 Community clubhouse 1,044,037 Perimeter fencing 1,130,523 Sales office 285,073 Other (includes preconstruction costs, utilities, interior furnishings) 1,215,287 Total $11,963,734 Soft Costs Engineering $2,173,726 R.E. taxes 2,456,371 Administration 10,792,876 Interest 17,559,646 Golf course grow-in 627,706 Club operations loss 11,253,058 POA subsidy 1,882,631 Total $46,746,014 Total Development Costs (to date) $93,701,167 Notes: 1 Includes 44 acres purchased in 1994. 2 The memberships are in the form of non-interest-bearing, nontransferable, redeemable certificates. Social, clubhouse, and dining memberships are also available for lesser amounts. DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE Site Purchased: March 1984 Planning Started: September 1983 Construction Started: 1984
Sales Started: October 1985 First Closing: May 1986 Phase I Completed: May 1986 Final 44 Acres Purchased: June 1994 Land Development Completed: May 1995 Projected Sales Completion: June 1996 DIRECTIONS From Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport: Take Interstate 85 through downtown Atlanta to Georgia 400 North (toll road). Proceed on 400 tollway approximately 20 minutes to Haynes Bridge Road. Exit to the right at Haynes Bridge and proceed to Old Alabama Road. Turn left on Old Alabama and continue approximately 2 miles to CCOS on right. First entry is the CCOS golf club; second entry is the sales and information center (4230 Old Alabama Road, Alpharetta, Georgia 30202; 404-442-3838). Driving Time: Approximately 40 minutes in nonpeak traffic. The Project Reference File is intended as a resource tool for use by the subscribers in improving the quality of future projects. Data contained herein were made available by the Development team and constitute a report on, not an endorsement of, the project by ULI - The Urban Land Institute. Copyright 1995, 1997, by ULI - the Urban Land Institute 1025 Thomas Jefferson Street, N. W. Ste. 500w, Washington, D. C. 20007-5201
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