Currituck Club
Outer Banks, North Carolina
Project Type: Residential
Case No: C030017
Year: 2000
SUMMARY An environmentally sensitive, 582-acre master-planned community nestled among the marshes and dunes along the Currituck Sound on North Carolina’s northern Outer Banks near the village of Corolla. The Currituck Club, a primary and second-home community developed by the Kitty Hawk Land Company, includes 412 single-family homesites, 20 patio homes, 142 detached homes, four club cottages, 90 condominiums, and a limited amount of commercial property. The community also features a golf course designed by Rees Jones that was chosen by Golf Magazine in 1996 as one of the "Top Ten New Golf Courses You Can Play" and in 2000 was rated 24th in the state of North Carolina by Golf Digest. The community was built on the historical grounds of the Currituck Shooting Club, the oldest continuously operating hunting club in North America. The Currituck Club, the only residential golf course development on the northern Outer Banks, features preserved marshlands, dunes, and native vegetation and low-density residential development.
FEATURES
Environmentally sensitive design Gated, master-planned community Residential-style architecture that differs from the resort architecture of the surrounding area Semiprivate golf course Currituck Club
Outer Banks, North Carolina
Project Type: Residential
Volume 30 Number 17
October-December 2000
Case Number: C030017
PROJECT TYPE
An environmentally sensitive, 582-acre master-planned community nestled among the marshes and dunes along the Currituck Sound on North Carolina’s northern Outer Banks near the village of Corolla. The Currituck Club, a primary and second-home community developed by the Kitty Hawk Land Company, includes 412 single-family homesites, 20 patio homes, 142 detached homes, four club cottages, 90 condominiums, and a limited amount of commercial property. The community also features a golf course designed by Rees Jones that was chosen by Golf Magazine in 1996 as one of the "Top Ten New Golf Courses You Can Play" and in 2000 was rated 24th in the state of North Carolina by Golf Digest. The community was built on the historical grounds of the Currituck Shooting Club, the oldest continuously operating hunting club in North America. The Currituck Club, the only residential golf course development on the northern Outer Banks, features preserved marshlands, dunes, and native vegetation and low-density residential development.
SPECIAL FEATURES
Environmentally sensitive design Gated, master-planned community Residential-style architecture that differs from the resort architecture of the surrounding area Semiprivate golf course
DEVELOPER
Kitty Hawk Land Company P.O. Box 229 Kitty Hawk, North Carolina 27949 919-261-2131
SITE PLANNER
Charles J. Mickey Hayes, Jr. Kitty Hawk Land Company 252-453-9445
PROJECT DIRECTOR
Robert L. Howsare Kitty Hawk Land Company 252-453-4610
GOLF COURSE DESIGNER
Rees Jones, Inc. P.O. Box 285 55 South Park Street Montclair, New Jersey 07042 973-744-4031 GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The Currituck Club is a 582-acre, gated golf course community located on the northern Outer Banks of North Carolina, approximately 20 miles north of Kitty Hawk. The community features 412 single-family homesites, 20 Center Court patio homes, 142 detached homes, four club cottages, 90 condominiums, and a limited amount of commercial property. The homes tend to average 3,600 to 3,700 square feet of heated space. Amenities include pools, tennis courts, a fitness center, a semiprivate golf course designed by Rees Jones, and beach access with valet service. The golf course clubhouse currently is under construction.
The Outer Banks, a series of barrier islands more than 130 miles in length, are bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on the east and sounds on the west. The area is renowned for its extensive beaches, wildlife, and vacation activities.
The vision for development of the Currituck Club was based on stewardship of the land. In keeping with that vision, the Kitty Hawk Land Company, a developer in the Outer Banks area for more than 25 years, has developed a residential golf course community that incorporates the area’s marshlands and dunes as well as views of Currituck Sound and the Atlantic Ocean.
THE SITE
The Currituck Club is bordered on the south by a 1,000-acre Audubon Society Sanctuary, on the north by residential and municipal utility property, to the east by residential development and the Currituck Shooting Club, and to the west by 1,500 acres of marshlands that extend to the Currituck Sound and are owned by the hunt club.
Previously, the site was an undeveloped landscape of sand dunes, maritime forest, wetlands, and marshes, owned and maintained by the Currituck Shooting Club for waterfowl hunting. The land and the clubhouse were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The hunting clubhouse and its outbuildings are preserved and still operate on 15 acres set aside on the property.
The community, designed to be sensitive to its environmental assets, incorporates the wetlands, natural vegetation, marshes, and dunes and uses them as focal points for the golf course and residential design.
PLANNING/DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
The Kitty Hawk Land Company recognized the need for a high-end residential golf course community in the northern Outer Banks and was able to secure the last available tract of land in the Corolla area for the Currituck Club. The land originally belonged to the Currituck Shooting Club, whose members have hunted in the area since 1856.
In the late 1980s, the Currituck Shooting Club’s landholdings were reassessed for ad valorem tax purposes. At that time, the tax assessment for the land was changed, boosting the club’s annual taxes more than tenfold and prompting the club’s interest in developing a residential community on the upland portion of its property. The members of the Currituck Shooting Club partnered with the Kitty Hawk Land Company to develop the community, making nearly 600 acres available for residential development and maintaining 15 acres for the shooting club.
The developers wanted a residential development that stood out from the surrounding area, while preserving the wetlands, maritime forest, and marshes of the Outer Banks. Nearby communities offer condominium timeshares and rentals, tall houses built on exposed piers that provide flood protection and a view of the ocean, and large homes designed for two to three families to share. In contrast, the Currituck Club offers single-family homes with traditional influences rather than the piers and other architectural elements commonly found on vacation rental properties. The developer’s use of covenants, conditions, and restrictions as well as architectural design guidelines helped to create a unique residential neighborhood. Homeowners in the development may apply the architectural guidelines so that their homes reflect their own tastes and take full advantage of the views, but they tread lightly on the surrounding marshlands.
The availability of water for the development was a concern from the beginning. To ensure that the Currituck Club could always meet its water needs regardless of aquifer conditions and without obtaining water from other developments, the developer built a reverse-osmosis water treatment plant to desalinate water from the sound that could be induced into raw water wells by manual pumping. The treatment plant provides water to the Currituck Club and may ultimately serve the adjacent (but separate) Spindrift subdivision as well. Even over a Fourth of July weekend, when the community is at full residential capacity, the water treatment plant will be able to provide enough water for everyone’s needs. The reverse-osmosis plant may have a role in a future regional utilities services system for the area.
Sewage is treated by a tertiary-level wastewater treatment plant that the development shares with the nearby Pine Island subdivision. The tertiary-treated effluent is used to irrigate the golf course. The Currituck Club was only the second development in North Carolina granted a permit to irrigate its golf course with effluent.
Rees Jones designed and oversaw the development of the golf course with a hands-on approach that was highly sensitive to the area’s marshes, maritime forest, and dunes, incorporating them into the golf course design. Making numerous trips to the community, he surveyed the course on foot, marking trees and other vegetation to be retained as well as areas to be cleared. The course, which took almost two years to design and one year to build, was planned through these walks, during which the designer and his assistant walked the initial fairway centerlines, marking an initial four-foot path to be cleared. They periodically returned to the development after clearing work had progressed to walk the fairways again.
The 18,000-square-foot golf clubhouse currently is under construction. A temporary clubhouse and pro shop are set up near the course. When completed, the new clubhouse will have two levels, with a private lounge known as the Rees Jones room on the second level. The first level will have a grill, locker rooms, card rooms, and a pro shop. Currently, the golf course is open to members, guests, and the public as time permits. Eventually, the golf course will be open to members and guests only, with public players filling in time slots in the off-season.
APPROVALS PROCESS
During the planning and public approvals process, the developers worked with many environmental stakeholders, including representatives from the state’s stormwater management, sedimentation, and erosion-control programs, state and local coastal management staffs, water and sewer regulatory authorities, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. To identify and map the property’s extensive wetlands was a major effort that required a wetlands specialist to mark the outline of each wetland with stakes so that a surveyor could create the master wetlands map. This time-intensive process helped the developer to comply with regulatory requirements as well as to work around the wetlands in order to protect and enhance them.
Years ago, when the members of the Currituck Shooting Club applied to have their hunting lodge listed in the National Register of Historic Places, they included the entirety of their land in the register as well. In order to develop the land responsibly, the developer worked with the North Carolina department of cultural resources to investigate Native American and other potentially historic sites on the property; none were found. Through this process, the developer learned that it was possible to create a viable development while complying with federal, state, and local regulations.
MANAGEMENT/MARKETING
Club Corp. of America, one of the world’s largest golf owner/operators, manages the golf course. Lighthouse Services, Inc., a local firm, manages all of the development’s recreational amenities, including the swimming pool, fitness center, and valet service to the beach.
Originally, single-family homes were priced in the $300,000 to $350,000 range; they now are in the $550,000 to $750,000 range. Homesites in the development initially started selling in the $80,000 to $125,000 range; now prices start at $130,000 and go up to $450,000. The increase in prices was a direct result of market demand. The project-to-date average price is approaching $185,000 for the 200-plus homesites sold so far. Because of the appreciation in homesite values, property owners who bought lots early but have not yet built on them are finding substantial appreciation when their homesites are appraised for construction loans.
Homeowners also may rent their homes, obtaining rents that range from $1,000 to $7,000 a week. Renters are permitted to use the community’s amenities and to pay reduced green fees.
In North Carolina, a property cannot be sold without a recorded plat. To record a plat, all utilities, roads, and infrastructure must be in place. To gauge interest in the community, the developer designed a reservation system to presell the lots before utilities were in place. Interested buyers made a $2,000 fully refundable deposit to reserve a place in line to choose a homesite. The first reservation holders had their choice of any homesite offered in the first phase of the community; individuals further down the list had to select several homesites in case their first choices already were reserved. Persons holding reservations were invited in the mid-1990s to the Outer Banks in small groups to choose their lots. The strategy was successful: 323 people made deposits, and about one-third of the participants completed the reservations process.
Marketing for the project targets current visitors through local print, radio, and television advertisements who already are familiar with the Outer Banks and its amenities. The developer plans to expand its marketing in 2001 to major metropolitan areas along the eastern seaboard. The community has full-time residents, but most of the homeowners consider the community to be a vacation or second-home resort, although they plan to live there full time in their retirement years.
The Kitty Hawk Land Company is scheduled to transfer control of the community to the homeowners association in 2007 or earlier, depending on the rate of homesite sales. Currently, each owned homesite carries one vote and each developer-owned homesite carries six votes in homeowner association matters, which enables the developer to maintain control in the early years of the development.
Golf club memberships are available to property owners only. Future plans include recreational facilities for property owners in addition to the clubhouse facilities.
CONCLUSION
The Currituck Club is 40 percent completed, with full buildout comprising 650 to 700 residential units expected in ten to 12 years. Because the Currituck Club is a semi-resort community and some buyers may wait a few years to build on their lots, it will not build out as fast as a typical subdivision. Phases yet to be developed include additional single-family homesites, patio homes with community maintenance, club cottages near the golf clubhouse, and a 60-room inn with a four-star restaurant and day spa. The commercial area adjacent to the development currently is under construction and will feature restaurants and real estate services. The developer also is considering adding assisted living accommodations and high-end retail outlets.
EXPERIENCE GAINED
A realistic budget that provides funds to do everything envisioned for the community is a necessity. Important items such as infrastructure and utilities should not be underbudgeted. Controlling the process and the subdevelopers is necessary to ensure that construction and maintenance meet the developer’s standards. Developing a community strictly according to local, state, and federal regulations is difficult and time-consuming, but it is more beneficial to follow the rules instead of trying to work around them. PROJECT DATA LAND USE INFORMATION Site area: 587.2 acres Total dwelling units planned/completed: 673/148 Gross density: 1.15 units per acre
LAND USE PLAN Use Acres Percent of site Single-family residential 182.0 31.2 Multifamily residential 67.4 11.5 Golf course 185.0 31.7 Roads 32.1 5.5 Common open space 85.9 15.0 Utilities 6.6 1.2 Commercial/hotel 23.7 1.2 Total 587.2 100
RESIDENTIAL UNIT INFORMATION Average Average Range of lot size unit size Number of rents (square (square units Range of per week Unit type feet) feet) planned/built sales prices Single-family 19,289 3,600 411/50 $350,000–1,600,000 $1,000–7,000 Patio homes 5,400 2,000 142/70 $225,000–550,000 $1,000–3,000 Condominiums N/A 2,200 90/30 $235,000–385,000 $1,000–3000 Other N/A N/A 20–64/0 N/A multifamily
DEVELOPMENT COST INFORMATION Total development cost (to date): $46,000,000 Total development cost expected at buildout: $50,400,000
DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE Planning started: June 1987 Site purchased: June 1988 Construction started: April 1995 Sales started: January 1996 First closing: February 1996
DIRECTIONS
From Norfolk, Virginia: Take Interstate 64 to the Battlefield Boulevard south exit (Route 168) to Route 158 south to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Then take NC 12 north through Southern Shores, Duck, and Sanderling for approximately 15 miles to the Currituck Club.
Driving time: Approximately two hours in nonpeak traffic from Norfolk, Virginia.
David Takesuye, editor Leslie Holst, report author Eileen Hughes, managing editor Joanne Nanez, art/layout David James Rose, editorial assistant
This Development Case Study is intended as a resource for subscribers in improving the quality of future projects. Data contained herein were made available by the project's development team and constitute a report on, not an endorsement of, the project by ULI-the Urban Land Institute.
Copyright © 2000 by ULI-the Urban Land Institute 1025 Thomas Jefferson Street, N.W. Suite 500 West, Washington D.C. 20007-5201 Homes at the Currituck Club reflect owners' personal tastes, make full use of the views, but tread lightly on the surrounding marshland. Homes at the Currituck Club reflect owners' personal tastes, make full use of the views, but tread lightly on the surrounding marshland. Villas overlook hole #11. Hole #15 of the golf course borders the marshlands and the Currituck Sound. Site plan.