Sheridan Ridge Private Resort - COMING SOON
DAN KEGLEY -- Staff
Smyth County News
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
County officials can’t say just how much, but a development like Sheridan Ridge Private Resort would pump millions of dollars into county coffers and they welcomed the developers’ formal announcement Saturday that they “are ready to move some dirt.”
That dirt now lies east of Marion above Bear Creek in a private tract of land whose ownership chain dates to Patrick Henry who obviously knew beautiful country when he saw it. Real estate broker Lou Ann Earnhardt of Carte Blanche Investments, LLC in Mooresville, N.C., knew it too when she and others chose the property for an upscale residential resort with 400 home sites catering to NASCAR drivers, sponsors and others looking for a rural getaway with the bank account to pay for the privilege.
Earnhardt and others held a press conference Saturday at The Restaurant in Hungry Mother State Park to announce their developers’ intention to begin construction of the 1,400-acre complex. According to speakers at the event and a prepared statement, Carte Blanche Investments, LLC, and Snowden Financial are working on the development under the guidance of a 15-member advisory board including four Nextel Cup Drivers, Greg and Nan Zipadelli, John Hondros, vice president of SunTrust Sports and Entertainment Banking, Jeff Hammond, Fox Sports analyst and the principals of Carte Blanche Investments and Snowden Financial.
The statement said Smyth County was chosen “from among a dozen other potential sites because of its close proximity to the NASCAR® tracks of Bristol and Martinsville. Balzer and Associates has been chosen as site engineer and is currently completing the Sheridan Ridge Master Plan. In addition to land planning and site engineering, the firm will be the project's construction and landscape architects. The Sheridan Ridge Private Reserve Development Company has negotiated the purchase of more than 1,400 acres of pristine mountain wilderness on Brushy and Walker Mountains.”
Proposed amenities include "The Mack," an Adirondack-style lodge with over 30,000 square feet complete with full-service restaurant, general store, the Earnhardt Tavern, a great room, game room, four guest suites, exercise room, sauna, indoor and outdoor swimming pool, library, theatre, offices and meeting rooms, massive stone fireplaces with indoor and outdoor dining areas. The lodge will be available for owners and their guests, according to the Sheridan Ridge Web site. Other amenities include the Hammond Equestrian Center, an outdoor amphitheatre, indoor and outdoor heated swimming pool, sports fields and activities center with indoor tennis court, Nanny Conner's Community Vegetable Garden, the Hondros Smoking and Dining Pavilion, more than 20 miles of challenging ATV and motorbike trails, a two-mile paved walking and jogging track, a trout pond, the Zipadelli Toy Barn, a shooting range, and numerous natural areas for hiking, camping, and mountain biking.
The Zipadelli Toy Barn will be designed by two-time Nextel Cup Championship winning Crew Chief Greg Zipadelli and his wife, Nan, who will lead the design team for all Sheridan Ridge amenities. The Toy Barn will house recreational equipment for owners and their guests. During the summer the Zipadelli Toy Barn will host children camp programs, according to plans.
The Hammond Equestrian Center will be designed by Winston Cup Championship crew chief and current FOX Sports broadcaster Jeff Hammond. The center will also house the Sheridan Ridge stables and the Hammond Tack Room and Grill.
The development is planned to consist of four sections, or communities. “Proposed communities include the Cabins, The Lodges, The Villages and The Homesteads,” the statement said. “Fully furnished Cabins will be offered starting at $389,000. All buildings will be built following strict architectural guidelines to complement the surrounding mountains. Lodge lots will be located near the heart of the community in close proximity to "The Mack." The Homesteads will be larger tracts offering owners the privacy and security of a second gated entrance. The Villages are proposed townhomes with more than 2,400 square feet on three levels.”
Earnhardt said previously that home and lot values will range from a half million dollars for smaller retirement homes to three or four million dollars at the high end.
“There’s no restriction on size,” Earnhardt said. “The only restriction is on the exterior character of the homes.”
Earnhardt declined to name investors Saturday, but said three of the top NASCAR drivers have committed to building recreation homes in Sheridan Ridge.
But on Saturday, for the first time a welcome mat was laid out for locals who might want to build in the development or work with the programs it will offer. Earnhardt said lots from two acres to ten acres will be available for “local residents. We don’t want to exclude anyone.” She also welcomed public input and involvement in children’s programs to be offered through Zipadelli’s Toy Barn that plans camp-type activities during the summer.
The development is not without its critics who privately worry about its environmental impact, especially to nearby Hungry Mother Creek whose headwaters are near the property, and question the legitimacy of the project and some of its backers.
But county officials see enormous fiscal benefit from the development. While the value of homes to be built on the reserve remains unknown, in the real estate tax alone the county would get $630 for every $100,000 in assessed value of property in the development, County Administrator Ed Whitmore said last summer.
According to Smyth County Commissioner of the Revenue Jeff Richardson, that’s only one slice of the pie. “If you have a lodge with dining, cooking equipment, beds, that’s all taxable at three and a half times the real estate rate,” Richardson said. If there’s a store, merchants’ capital tax is levied at 40 cents per $100 of stock on hand. For every home, if there’s a car in the garage, it’s taxable, and cars in those garages are likely to have high assessed value, Richardson said. A heliport would be taxable. So would any private roads. And so would any construction equipment, even from out of state, sitting on the development on Jan. 1 of each year.
Every New Year’s Day, Richardson takes his camera to all of the construction sites in the county, photographs the graders and bulldozers, and sends the owner a tax bill based on the value of the equipment. It’s a small expense for contractors – part of the cost of doing business – so they don’t bother hauling the equipment away for the day. And Smyth County’s tax rate is sometimes much less than the contractor faces for equipment left at headquarters in New York for example, where Richardson recalled sending a tax bill for on-site equipment.
Richardson is quick to say that while a development like Sheridan Ridge is a mine rich in tax ore, it would be taxed fairly. “We do our homework and apply the law. We find everything that is assessable and assess it in a fair and equal manner,” he said. “We are politely aggressive.”
Richardson said the rumor that Sheridan Ridge would get a tax break is incorrect. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you have under a principle called equality before the law. “They won’t be treated any worse or better because they have money,” Richardson said. “There’s no sweetheart deal.”
The commissioner said he’s heard two other fears expressed regarding housing developments’ effect on other property owners, and both are groundless, he said. He heard the first one, that rezoning for developments like St. John Crossing south of Chilhowie would cause a loss of land use tax relief for other land owners.
“Sheridan Ridge won’t affect surrounding landowners,” Richardson said, neither impacting their land use or their own property assessments. Richardson said some taxpayers fear Sheridan Ridge will cause their property values to be appraised higher for real estate tax purposes.
“Sheridan Ridge is not going to be used to set real estate values,” he said. “You have to compare apples to apples, and there are not other apples like this in the county.”
Sheridan Ridge’s own assessments will be based on those for similar developments elsewhere in the Commonwealth, Richardson said.
Richardson confirmed that point Monday with Dave Hickey of Blue Ridge Appraisal Co., the firm contracted by the county for years to handle reassessment. Sheridan Ridge will be “a world unto itself” with regard to assessment, he said Hickey told him.
Despite the announcement’s 75-minute delay as the group awaited the Zipadellis’ arrival, and the absence of expected NASCAR figures whose helicopters were grounded by high wind, local officials were jubilant.
“All I can say is welcome. Welcome, welcome, welcome,” said Charlie Clark, chairman of the county supervisors. “Thank you for choosing Smyth County.”
Article Reference: SmythNews.com | Resort developers ready to move dirt
Smyth County News
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
County officials can’t say just how much, but a development like Sheridan Ridge Private Resort would pump millions of dollars into county coffers and they welcomed the developers’ formal announcement Saturday that they “are ready to move some dirt.”
That dirt now lies east of Marion above Bear Creek in a private tract of land whose ownership chain dates to Patrick Henry who obviously knew beautiful country when he saw it. Real estate broker Lou Ann Earnhardt of Carte Blanche Investments, LLC in Mooresville, N.C., knew it too when she and others chose the property for an upscale residential resort with 400 home sites catering to NASCAR drivers, sponsors and others looking for a rural getaway with the bank account to pay for the privilege.
Earnhardt and others held a press conference Saturday at The Restaurant in Hungry Mother State Park to announce their developers’ intention to begin construction of the 1,400-acre complex. According to speakers at the event and a prepared statement, Carte Blanche Investments, LLC, and Snowden Financial are working on the development under the guidance of a 15-member advisory board including four Nextel Cup Drivers, Greg and Nan Zipadelli, John Hondros, vice president of SunTrust Sports and Entertainment Banking, Jeff Hammond, Fox Sports analyst and the principals of Carte Blanche Investments and Snowden Financial.
The statement said Smyth County was chosen “from among a dozen other potential sites because of its close proximity to the NASCAR® tracks of Bristol and Martinsville. Balzer and Associates has been chosen as site engineer and is currently completing the Sheridan Ridge Master Plan. In addition to land planning and site engineering, the firm will be the project's construction and landscape architects. The Sheridan Ridge Private Reserve Development Company has negotiated the purchase of more than 1,400 acres of pristine mountain wilderness on Brushy and Walker Mountains.”
Proposed amenities include "The Mack," an Adirondack-style lodge with over 30,000 square feet complete with full-service restaurant, general store, the Earnhardt Tavern, a great room, game room, four guest suites, exercise room, sauna, indoor and outdoor swimming pool, library, theatre, offices and meeting rooms, massive stone fireplaces with indoor and outdoor dining areas. The lodge will be available for owners and their guests, according to the Sheridan Ridge Web site. Other amenities include the Hammond Equestrian Center, an outdoor amphitheatre, indoor and outdoor heated swimming pool, sports fields and activities center with indoor tennis court, Nanny Conner's Community Vegetable Garden, the Hondros Smoking and Dining Pavilion, more than 20 miles of challenging ATV and motorbike trails, a two-mile paved walking and jogging track, a trout pond, the Zipadelli Toy Barn, a shooting range, and numerous natural areas for hiking, camping, and mountain biking.
The Zipadelli Toy Barn will be designed by two-time Nextel Cup Championship winning Crew Chief Greg Zipadelli and his wife, Nan, who will lead the design team for all Sheridan Ridge amenities. The Toy Barn will house recreational equipment for owners and their guests. During the summer the Zipadelli Toy Barn will host children camp programs, according to plans.
The Hammond Equestrian Center will be designed by Winston Cup Championship crew chief and current FOX Sports broadcaster Jeff Hammond. The center will also house the Sheridan Ridge stables and the Hammond Tack Room and Grill.
The development is planned to consist of four sections, or communities. “Proposed communities include the Cabins, The Lodges, The Villages and The Homesteads,” the statement said. “Fully furnished Cabins will be offered starting at $389,000. All buildings will be built following strict architectural guidelines to complement the surrounding mountains. Lodge lots will be located near the heart of the community in close proximity to "The Mack." The Homesteads will be larger tracts offering owners the privacy and security of a second gated entrance. The Villages are proposed townhomes with more than 2,400 square feet on three levels.”
Earnhardt said previously that home and lot values will range from a half million dollars for smaller retirement homes to three or four million dollars at the high end.
“There’s no restriction on size,” Earnhardt said. “The only restriction is on the exterior character of the homes.”
Earnhardt declined to name investors Saturday, but said three of the top NASCAR drivers have committed to building recreation homes in Sheridan Ridge.
But on Saturday, for the first time a welcome mat was laid out for locals who might want to build in the development or work with the programs it will offer. Earnhardt said lots from two acres to ten acres will be available for “local residents. We don’t want to exclude anyone.” She also welcomed public input and involvement in children’s programs to be offered through Zipadelli’s Toy Barn that plans camp-type activities during the summer.
The development is not without its critics who privately worry about its environmental impact, especially to nearby Hungry Mother Creek whose headwaters are near the property, and question the legitimacy of the project and some of its backers.
But county officials see enormous fiscal benefit from the development. While the value of homes to be built on the reserve remains unknown, in the real estate tax alone the county would get $630 for every $100,000 in assessed value of property in the development, County Administrator Ed Whitmore said last summer.
According to Smyth County Commissioner of the Revenue Jeff Richardson, that’s only one slice of the pie. “If you have a lodge with dining, cooking equipment, beds, that’s all taxable at three and a half times the real estate rate,” Richardson said. If there’s a store, merchants’ capital tax is levied at 40 cents per $100 of stock on hand. For every home, if there’s a car in the garage, it’s taxable, and cars in those garages are likely to have high assessed value, Richardson said. A heliport would be taxable. So would any private roads. And so would any construction equipment, even from out of state, sitting on the development on Jan. 1 of each year.
Every New Year’s Day, Richardson takes his camera to all of the construction sites in the county, photographs the graders and bulldozers, and sends the owner a tax bill based on the value of the equipment. It’s a small expense for contractors – part of the cost of doing business – so they don’t bother hauling the equipment away for the day. And Smyth County’s tax rate is sometimes much less than the contractor faces for equipment left at headquarters in New York for example, where Richardson recalled sending a tax bill for on-site equipment.
Richardson is quick to say that while a development like Sheridan Ridge is a mine rich in tax ore, it would be taxed fairly. “We do our homework and apply the law. We find everything that is assessable and assess it in a fair and equal manner,” he said. “We are politely aggressive.”
Richardson said the rumor that Sheridan Ridge would get a tax break is incorrect. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you have under a principle called equality before the law. “They won’t be treated any worse or better because they have money,” Richardson said. “There’s no sweetheart deal.”
The commissioner said he’s heard two other fears expressed regarding housing developments’ effect on other property owners, and both are groundless, he said. He heard the first one, that rezoning for developments like St. John Crossing south of Chilhowie would cause a loss of land use tax relief for other land owners.
“Sheridan Ridge won’t affect surrounding landowners,” Richardson said, neither impacting their land use or their own property assessments. Richardson said some taxpayers fear Sheridan Ridge will cause their property values to be appraised higher for real estate tax purposes.
“Sheridan Ridge is not going to be used to set real estate values,” he said. “You have to compare apples to apples, and there are not other apples like this in the county.”
Sheridan Ridge’s own assessments will be based on those for similar developments elsewhere in the Commonwealth, Richardson said.
Richardson confirmed that point Monday with Dave Hickey of Blue Ridge Appraisal Co., the firm contracted by the county for years to handle reassessment. Sheridan Ridge will be “a world unto itself” with regard to assessment, he said Hickey told him.
Despite the announcement’s 75-minute delay as the group awaited the Zipadellis’ arrival, and the absence of expected NASCAR figures whose helicopters were grounded by high wind, local officials were jubilant.
“All I can say is welcome. Welcome, welcome, welcome,” said Charlie Clark, chairman of the county supervisors. “Thank you for choosing Smyth County.”
Article Reference: SmythNews.com | Resort developers ready to move dirt
