Did You See Today's Nashville Business Journal?!
Friday, July 25, 2008
$131M in new residential set for Wilson Co.
Nashville Business Journal - by Jenny Burns Nashville Business Journal
A local residential builder that has focused mostly on Sumner County is expanding into Wilson County for the first time with two new developments near Lebanon estimated at $131 million.
Southeastern Building Corp. President David Luckey says one of his company's projects is Holland Ridge, a $95 million, 100-acre townhome and single-family home development. The other is a $36 million project called Watermill at Bartons Creek.
Southeastern has been in business for 20 years and Luckey says Wilson County's growth in industrial development and a retail building boom in nearby Mount Juliet make the county a great location for more residential development.
Wilson County's boom in industrial, manufacturing and distribution has been attracting developers, says Tom Brashear, director of the Wilson County Planning Department.
Southeastern is preparing to start infrastructure work on both projects.
The Holland Ridge site is two exits east of Providence off of Interstate 40 and has easy interstate access, Luckey says. The site is at the intersection of Highway 109 and Leeville Pike.
"We felt like it had good road systems with the announcement of the widening of Highway 109," Luckey says. "We felt like it was a good opportunity to develop in that corridor."
"That site had better accessibility than some other sites we had looked at," he adds. "We were looking for areas similar to Sumner County. We want to duplicate our success in Sumner."
Luckey plans to build 416 homes starting in the low $200,000 range. Build out will take seven years. Watermill, which is expected to break ground in a couple months, will offer 120 home lots, with 17 lake lots and a community dock on Coles Ferry Pike. Brashear says he likes the new development concept Southeastern is using at Watermill, where homes will be built in pods on coves which leaves more open space for the homes to share.
Wilson County's residential growth has boomed. In 2003, the county counted 10,000 lots under development. By 2005, the estimated number of lots being developed was between 15,000 and 17,000.
The real estate slowdown is affecting the area, too. Developers are still working on developments they had in the pipeline but many aren't starting new ones, Brashear says.
Since April, his office hasn't seen many development plans for new pieces of property.
Holland Ridge will offer several different price points and products, a lesson Southeastern learned from its many products in Kennesaw Farms, a $300 million traditional neighborhood development on Gallatin Road in Sumner County.
Southeastern is completing construction of a 288-unit upscale apartment complex at Kennesaw, and planning new phases with cottage homes and villas, which are one-story homes for empty nesters. Luckey says the key to success in a slow market is diversification.
Sumner County's market had too many homes for sale in the over-$400,000 price range, Luckey says, so his company has stayed under a $350,000 price range with the new product at Kennesaw, which starts in the low $200s.
A CVS drugstore just closed on one parcel of the retail component of the project.
Kennesaw isn't estimated to reach build out for another seven years.
jburns@bizjournals.com 615-846-4276
