Development looks at change

From the State Port Pilot: Home construction will be taking a different approach in St. James Plantation, new real estate general manager Bobby Masters told members of the town planning board at their Thursday meeting. New construction will focus on single-family houses and lower-density construction, with an emphasis on raising property values in St. James, Masters said. Masters has replaced Bob Duffy, whose plans for the development, which makes up the vast majority of the Town of St. James, had included more semiattached homes, townhomes and similar structures, as well as clusters of smaller detached homes.Duffy resigned in February, saying at the time that the move was amicable and due to different visions about how to proceed. Bill deBruin, director of development and construction for St. James Plantation, recently announced that he was leaving as well. Masters will oversee both areas for the immediate future, he told the planning board Thursday, and will focus on inishing plans for development in the Seaside area, while focusing more on single-family homes. “I think in the immediate future, we’ll probably trend more toward lower density. I know there was a lot of talk about condos, townhomes, et cetera, but I think in the immediate future it’ll probably go the other way,” he said. He noted that construction at Harbor Walk had just inished, with 12 units on the market in what was probably the best area in the development to locate condos. “Smaller, single-family building is well-received, and the way those are priced, we would be hard-pressed to build a condo and put it on the market for cheaper than small single-family buildings.” “We don’t want to build a product that’s purely price-point,” he continued. “Everyone got killed in the crash, but prices are starting to come back and they will come back irst in places like St. James, with the amenities complete, sewer complete, et cetera. It’s a livable, viable, breathing town. “What we’re going to be trying to do is push those values back up to, quite frankly, where they need to be. We’re not interested in producing a cheaper product where someone comes to look just for the prices,” Masters said. “We’d rather sell less for more than more for less. Our goal is to provide a diversity of product and pricing so we can hit various niches of the market; we want to position ourselves where our prices are above the rest of the market, because we’re above the rest of the market.” Development in Seaside will likely continue as it is now, he said, with smaller but detached homes. If development does return to multi-family at some point in the future, he added, it would be more likely in the areas closer to the Midway Road bridge corridor or N.C. 211. One of the largest markets of buyers in St. James Plantation right now are what Masters called “pre-retiree,” or people who are not quite to the point of retiring and moving yet, and are often wanting to buy a lot and come later to build a home. Keeping an inventory of vacant lots as well as completed homes will help the development appeal to both markets, he said, adding that he envisioned a cooperation between the development ofice and building companies, possibly offering model streets in areas of new development mixed among the vacant lots. “People are starting to see prices going back up again,” he said. “People who have been trying to decide if the market has bottomed out start seeing it tick up, and that gets a lot of people to make that decision.” The development ofice has been “slammed” with tours for prospective buyers, he added, with numbers up from previous years. Town of St. James assistant zoning administrator Judy Hughes said she had approved ive building permits that day, and that total permits were up to 62 for the quarter; in the same quarter of 2012 the town issued 35 building permits, and 141 for the year. “It’s amazing to think that this pace can continue, but it’s very positive,” she said. Ken Keegan Real Estate Broker

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St. James Plantation