Hole-ly Committed
The Financial Times, June 7, 2008 by Mark Ellwood, The Financial Times Staff Writer
The sliver of a state known as Rhode Island, the smallest in the US, is dominated by the huge natural estuary known as Narragansett Bay. It defined the maritime vibe that dominates here and nowhere is that ethos stronger than on the archipelago, nicknamed Aquidneck, the area that is home to the towns of Newport, Middletown and Portsmouth.
The first nine-hole golf course in the country was constructed in Newport in 1890 to serve the 19th-century tycoons who built luxurious waterfront mansions here; and so it's only appropriate that the newest local landmark should be a golf club--or rather, the luxury golf community known as Carnegie Abbey.
Exclusive golf retreats geared toward wealthy summer residents and visitors are not new to the area. Newport Country Club, Misquamicut and Sakonnet were all set up some years ago as very exclusive golf resorts. And all, including Carnegie Abbey have helped push up property prices here.
Carnegie Abbey was conceived by yacht enthusiast and millionaire developer Peter de Savary. When it opened in 2001, it formed part of his network of luxury clubs, from namesake Carnegie Abbey at Scotland's Skibo Castle to Cherokee Plantation in South Carolina. Four years ago de Savary sold up and developer Brian O'Neill took over, re-imagining and expanding the initial concept. The original 400-acre waterfront club had an 18-hole Donald Steel-designed course and 80-strong caddy programme, equestrian club, pool and 41-slip marina; there were also 20 luxury apartments in the clubhouse.
O'Neill expanded the development to include a full-scale community next door, with 24 single-family, built to order cottages (starting at 2,800 square feet and priced at $1.9 million) and 79 luxury condo units (1,175 square feet and costing from $895,000) in a new 220 foot Tower.
Mitch Pozez is based in Tucson and was one of the first to snap up a property. "Newport Rhode Island is not a typical Arizona escape," he says. "But we were at a family wedding here in June 2001 and I thought [Carnegie Abbey] looked like it was a really cool spot. I'm a fairly serious golfer-well, I'm totally in love with the game-and so later that summer I drove down from Cape Cod and played the golf course..."
...The family moved into a 5000 square foot cottage last summer. "It's a fantastic contrast between Arizona and Rhode Island: we go from mountains and brown to the lushness and the green, and the atmosphere of being on an island all summer." There are other benefits, too. "I pilot a small airplane and I take it back east with us when we go. In the west, distances are very great - to LA, it takes two hours. But I go to an enormous amount of places on the east coast in an hour-it's fifteen minutes to Nantucket, 25 minutes to Martha's Vineyard."
The price difference is no small draw either. It's a bargain: prices here are 60-65 percent of Nantucket prices. That difference is a fact that O'Neill emphasizes constantly. "A home in Carnegie Abbey in Newport is half the price of a comparable house in Nantucket or Long Island where homes have appreciated at double the rate of homes there. In the last year some lots have increased in value from $2m to $3m."
But prices haven't just risen within the community, as local real estate agent Melanie Delman explains. She says Aquidneck Island's so convenient - a three hour drive from Manhattan, 90 minutes from Boston - yet remains largely undiscovered.
The uniqueness of many of the local historic homes makes it hard to quantify price rises elsewhere on Aquidneck, as there's such a variety between them: Delman's current portfolio includes a Peabody & Stearns oceanfront mansion with a heliport ($22.5m), a McKim, Mead & White carriage-style house ($9.9 m) and a Richard Morris Hunt-Frederick Law Olmstead castle-like collaboration ($14.7 m)...
The Financial Times, June 7, 2008
Mark Ellwood, The Financial Times Staff Writer
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