I am currently involved in working with an investor who is looking to develop some property close to Asheville, North Carolina. The property can range anywhere from 3 -30 acres with frontage on a major highway, three quarters a mile away from Interstate 40, and a half mile away from the Blue Ridge Parkway. Downtown Asheville is about 10 minutes away with the Biltmore Estates approximately the same distance. The state raod that it is on has also ben designated a scenic byway by the state of North Carolina. The property is somewhat rolling close to the state road, getting steeper the deeper you go back. Height restrictions will probably limit any structures to 3 to 4 stories. There are also three old (circa 1930's) log cabins on the property 2 in very good shape, a third that needs some TLC. The price at this point is highly negotiable but most likely will demand that some sort of intensive development occur on the site.
The smaller acreage sections could be used to build a hotel and retail shops and a restaurant. Anyone know of any developers working on Green Hotels? There are hotels participating in an Green Hotel Association but these seem to be existing structures that are changing they way they do business but reducing energy and water consumption and using green products.
We would also consider a green multi-family condo development with more acreage, setting aside at least half the land in a conservation easement , while building hiking trails and perhaps using the log cabins as community meeting or recreation areas. These would have to be high end condos though in order for the numbers to work.
So does anyone have any other ideas about other different types of Green Eco-developments? I have not done an extensive Internet search yet, but my first tries have not borne any fruit. I have heard of Eco-Spa complexes but that's about it. So what other kind of green sustainable developments has anyone heard about that would meet the requirements of an intensive development site which this one will be no matter how many acres we choose to develop. It would just be nice to not have to do another run of the mill hotel/retail/restaurant development but rather something that has Alternative Green Development written all over it. The Asheville market is ripe for this type of product. Any other Green development ideas floating around out there?
**Picture from the book The Art of Natural Building: Design, Construction, Resources, by Joesph Kennedy
Comments(11)