Hot Properties: The Best of Both Worlds
BY TODD A. CALLAWAYPHOTO BY RIMAS ZAILSKAS
Connie Schulze’s ideal Sunday morning begins with a brisk walk to buy the New York Times, a hot cup of coffee and a homemade muffin. So living only footsteps from the Black Bear Coffee Co. on Main Street in Hendersonville — with its New York Times rack, tasty banana-nut muffins and outdoor café ambience — was appealing. “It doesn’t get any better than that,” says Connie, a school psychologist.Schulze and her husband, Neil Richter, are among a growing number of people who are choosing to live in the heart of things, and willing to pay for a downtown dwelling with all its amenities — great dining, art galleries, gourmet markets and theatres. But this town, in particular, has the added benefits of a congenial community and charming environs.
“We feel Hendersonville offers a lot of urban amenities in a rural setting,” Schulze says. “We’d planned to buy a condo in a bigger city, but concerns about safety issues stopped those plans. Then we realized we could get a lot of what we wanted out of a big city — art, fine food and the Fresh Market — all within walking distance of our condo. It really struck a balance that satisfied all of our needs.”
The convenience makes it worth the price tag — roughly $400,000. Like many empty nesters, the appeal of no property maintenance, along with the vibrant lifestyle, attracted Schulze and Richter. They are not alone. Luxury downtown condos are luring young and middle-aged professionals, as well as retirees, who are seeking high-end city living on a small town scale.
Looking down its zigzagged Main Street, with its hanging plants, colorful collection of sculptured bears, historic courthouse and deep mountain traditions, you’d never know there’s about to be an influx of luxury condominiums in Hendersonville.
But it’s coming, and in the forefront of this trend is architect Ken Gaylord, who designed the condominium project at 310 South Main.
In a crisp, white button-down shirt and perfectly pleated pants, Ken sits in the conference room of the 310 South Main Street sales office on First Avenue West, munching on fresh muscadine grapes, sharing his plans for his 31-unit building and his thoughts on the other five other condominium projects planned for downtown.
“The typical American family — mom, dad and 2.4 children — isn’t so typical anymore,” Gaylord says. “You have young couples with no children. You have singles and you have retired folks. These non-typical families are interested in non-typical living environments.”
So far, most of the people buying homes at 310 South Main are from within 50 miles of Hendersonville, Gaylord says — Western North Carolina working folks — and the residences will be primary, not second homes.
310 South Main will offer its residents modern design blended with European-inspired architecture. Each residence includes a chef-friendly kitchen with an island and breakfast bar, and open living space in one-, two- or three-bedroom floor plans, ranging in size from 650 to 2,500 square feet. All the homes will feature a covered exterior balcony and many will have an additional balcony overlooking the landscaped courtyard.
Eight commercial condos of varying size will occupy the first floor. These units will provide the opportunity for living and working under one roof. And for those who have retired, the building will also offer accessible “age in place” units with barrier-free design.
Grand windows will connect the light-filled interior of the homes to the surrounding Blue Ridge Mountains and downtown Hendersonville. Drawings of 310 South Main’s condos reveal large masonry arches, 10-foot-high ceilings and a glass partition wall looking out to the balcony room.
“People are finding urban surroundings — Main Streets — desirable places to live again,” Gaylord says. “Living in a downtown environment where there’s no maintenance, you don’t have to worry about security, and you can walk to a restaurant for dinner are reasons for the number of developments planned here, in my opinion.”
Gaylord, along with the developers of the other downtown condominiums — The Plaza, Oak and Grove, Main and Allen, The Wisteria and Beacons Commons — are banking on this trend filling the 153 units that are currently under development.
But 310 South Main will offer buyers something different than the other buildings, Gaylord says. “It will be Hendersonville’s first certified green building,” he says.
The building will be a LEED registered project, Gaylord says. To achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification with the U.S. Green Building Council, buildings must demonstrate superior performance in the areas of site selection, water conservation, energy efficiency, low impact materials and indoor environmental quality.
“It’s no secret that man’s impact on the planet has had some very harmful consequences,” Gaylord says. “It’s also no secret we need to do a better job on saving the planet. Buildings consume 40 percent of the energy in the country, use a substantial amount of the water and create a lot of the greenhouse gases. I see 310 South Main as an opportunity to change how we design and build to diminish negative impacts on the planet.”
Some green techniques at 310 South Main include a cistern to capture rain water to use for irrigation purposes, limiting parking lot water runoff by using porous paving surfaces, low-flow plumbing fixtures to reduce water consumption, large windows with energy-efficient glazing to provide day lighting and minimal heat gain, and solar panels to generate electricity for common areas.
Gaylord also designed the building to allow residents to enjoy the mountains’ natural beauty. “The courtyard is the centerpiece of the building,” he says. “It’s open to the sky.” The project also includes a fountain at the center of the courtyard with professionally maintained lush year-round vegetation.
All the approved downtown projects have plans for assigned parking, either below ground, at street level or a combination of the two, an important consideration in an area with limited public parking.
Another project, The Plaza in the Mountains, is already visible over the downtown skyline and isn’t far from completion, says Hamid Najafi, the developer of the 28-unit condominium project at South Grove and South Pine streets.
He describes the project as “an urban mountain retreat, which brings a grand Euro-inspired presence to historic downtown.”
To this end, the Plaza will have a courtyard with a European hotel-style atrium and an attention to detail that Najafi says will allow residents to experience Gemutlichkeit, or a “sense of cheerfulness and belonging — the absence of anything hectic.”
To maintain that feeling of well-being, residents at Plaza in the Mountains can stay fit with regular workouts in the exercise center, enjoy an evening at the outdoor fire pit on the entertainment terrace, or take their pooches for a run in the “Paw de Deux” pet park. There will be an enclosed parking garage with controlled access security and secure bicycle parking.
The four-story building features luxury one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments starting at $285,000, and Najafi says nine of the units are already under contract. The buyers are a demographic mix, he says. “Some are from Charlotte, some from Florida, some from Massachusetts. One of our first buyers is the father of a University of South Carolina student. He is buying it for his son who is about to graduate and move to Hendersonville,” he says.
Other early buyers at The Plaza are a retired couple from Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Their condominium purchase here was based on being within a short stroll of downtown’s restaurants, galleries and shops, but was also influenced by Hendersonville’s central location on the East Coast.
“Ponte Vedra Beach is just south of Jacksonville, close enough to drive to Hendersonville for long weekends. We also have a place on Cape Cod and wanted a place in between,” the buyer says. “I’ve lived on golf courses and in gated communities and I didn’t like that situation. Here, I can walk to town, to all the good restaurants, and if I want to go play golf, I can jump in the car and drive to any of the fabulous courses in Western North Carolina.”
With so many options, and the allure of a low maintenance, yet active lifestyle, it’s easy to see why downtown living is a growing trend in Hendersonville — it’s the best of both worlds.
