Has anyone been to the website of the resort community started by American bike racer George Hincapie? The community is called Pla d'Adet, named after the Tour DeFrance stage he won in 2005. An excerpt from the website states that the community is:
Gracefully nestled near the Blue Ridge Mountains, Pla d’Adet is a unique, one- of-a-kind resort community for families desiring a lifestyle of health and fitness. Pla d’Adet Village will feature a state-of-the-art fitness center providing highly sophisticated training equipment, many of the world’s most knowledgeable and experienced fitness professionals, an exceptionally pleasing climate ideally suited for year-round fitness activities and three-hundred plus acres of graceful mountain wilderness.
Homesites here (just the lot, not the home) range from $400,000 to $1,500,000. I'm sure that corporate lawyers, Wall Street Bankers, and heart surgeons are dancing in their corner offices over the opportunity to work with "many of the world’s most knowledgeable and experienced fitness professionals."
If you or anyone you know buys a place here, I'll gladly visit and stay at one of the guest "Chalets" or "Masionettes". As the website states, "Ownership has its privileges."
10 comments:
I remember hitting the website over the summer. All of the "cheap" sites were already gone. Maybe we can purchase a site for SBR and hold training camps down there.
We can dream, can't we?
I'm sure all that building won't have an environmental impact, and I'm really glad the super-rich have more "privileges" than they can handle.
I thought the same thing, thump. I couldn't find any mention on the website about attempting to minimize the environmental impact of the project, sustainability, impact on wildlife, etc. Pretty sad if you ask me.
Eric, budget-wise, how close are we to being able to afford one of these sitesfor SBR? Just one more SBR sponsorship, perhaps a neighborhood deli or nail salon, and we should be pretty close, eh?
Laurie and I have been following Pla d'Adet’s development since February 2007 after reading its first press release on cyclingnews.com (Hincapie plans cycling village). We were interested and had the opportunity to get one of the more affordable lots before they were snapped up. Yet we came to the conclusion that our money would be better invested elsewhere. Still it would be a very cool place to hang, train, and ride with a group of your biking buddies.
And come on guys… Let’s be honest! There are much bigger issues at play regarding the health of our planet than the environmental impact of Pla d'Adet. It’s not as if Hincapie’s goal here is to create a Superfund site.
After looking at the SBR’s budget it appears we could afford a Pla d'Adet property. We just wouldn’t be able to have a race reimbursement program for the next 40 years. :-)
Don, were there sites for less than $400,000 available at first? It looks like you have to use that one particular builder, and those houses look rather 'spensive. I'd be surprised if you could get away with anything there for less than seven figures, or is that not the case??
Class warfare is a slippery slope. Just remember, we are all "super rich" ourselves, by most any standard.
We'll have to have treasurer Gary make sure when SBR buys our team home/dream home that we budget for the $12,000 per year in homeowners' association fees and the $19,000 a year in property taxes ...
But the state gives a $50K cut in appraised value for people with disabilities. Anyone who has seen me climb would say I qualify.
On the other hand, the homeowners' assn. budget for landscaping is only $25K a year. And to address all your green concerns, Davey, I quote: "However, given the intent to keep the Pla d’Adet development as natural as possible, this number will likely decrease over time."
Given the current economic climate, I'm thinking those $400K lots will be going for about $300K by mid-year. But with a little ambition, we may be able to persuade Hincapie's foreclosing banks to sell us the whole development for 60 cents on the dollar in a year.
Dave - From my recollection the site costs were lower than what's being offered now. The first brochure they sent us is somewhere around the house. If you want I’ll try to track it down so we could compare past and current costs.
As a point of clarification, if we had bought a chunk of land from Pla d’Adet we weren’t going to build a home right away. Again… If I remember correctly, there was some rule in effect where you weren’t obligated to build a house for 5 or 7 years. So our plan was to get the land and then stay in one of the Chalets or Masionettes whenever we wanted to visit. Then we’d have all the benefits of ownership without having to own and maintain a second home.
And point of clarification #2; I reread my statement about Pla d’Adet’s environmental impact and it comes off a little rough towards you and Thump’s points of view on the subject. Just wanted to let you guys know that wasn’t my intent and I apologize if it was.
That's fine. I didn't want to come across as some self righteous militant or anything. I just thought it was odd that I couldn't find anything on the site about those issues. In a development that boasts its natural setting, I was surprised that, in this day and age, they didn't address the development's impact on it's largest asset....nature!!
Jimmynick is right: we are all super-rich by almost every standard in a global perspective.
Also, true, Hincapie's resort is no superfund sight. It's not even close to what's happening, say, near Elyria or in flats (that smell is a combination of petro-chemicals and silt).
But here's hoping that people take an environmentally-friendly path when building.
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