THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 21, 1994 TAG: 9408180252
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 44 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Real Estate
SOURCE: Chris Kidder
LENGTH: Long : 103 lines
The subdivision of Bay Cliff on Colington Island is 23 acres of mountain forest and subtropical greenery. Less than three miles from the beach, it might as well be three hundred miles away. This is not your typical beach community.
To reach Bay Cliff, you turn off Route 158 in Kill Devil Hills and head west on a narrow, twisting two-lane road that skirts the southern end of Kitty Hawk Bay. You across Colington Creek twice to reach Little Colington Island.
You keep winding along the water until you cross the ``cut'' where Big Colington Island was deliberately separated from its smaller half in the 18th century to provide easy passage from north to south.
Once on Big Colington Island, past the houses of crabbers with their yards piled high with crab pots, past rows of travel trailers camped along the water, past a hodgepodge of homes and small businesses built before zoning and land use planning, you turn south at Williams Drive.
A quarter mile after the turn, Williams Drive stops and Bay Cliff Trail begins. In the middle of the road, a stucco gatehouse - unmanned, for now - is engulfed by greenery and the bright summer colors of giant lilies and impatiens.
Trees and vines blanket roller-coaster hills. Birds twitter and caw through a leafy canopy that rustles softly in the salt breeze. Homes painted in browns and greens blend into the hillsides at the end of steep drives, while along the roadways cascades of summer flowers dazzle the eye. The air is earthy, primeval, with the aroma of pine and cedar.
The subdivision began in the mid-1980s with a grand scheme of luxury living behind guarded gate and 24-hour security service.
Bay Cliff was platted as a planned unit development giving buyers ownership of only the land on which their houses sat. All other land was owned in common and maintained through the homeowners' association.
The timing for Bay Cliff was bad. The subdivision started sales shortly before the real estate market collapsed. Demand for service-intensive, high-end housing didn't materialize. Properties without easy ocean access were ignored by investors.
Year-round residents, with the local economy sinking fast, couldn't afford the luxury.
By 1992, Bay Cliff's developer had cut a deal with one of the lenders, Cooperative Bank for Savings, that transferred ownership of the development to the bank.
``The bank didn't want to hold real estate,'' said Cooperative's vice president Rick Cowan. When marketing studies showed that selling Bay Cliff as originally planned would take years, the bank decided to eliminate some of the luxury and lower prices.
As part of their community reinvestment program, the bank offers 90 percent financing on Bay Cliff lots. The current interest rate on a 36-month, fixed rate lot loan is under 3 percent. The monthly loan payments, amortized over 15 years, can be as low as $110, said Cowan.
To speed up sales, the development's unpopular condominium-style land ownership plan had to be changed. Unable to obtain county approval for redrawing and selling larger lots outright, Cooperative Bank, BC Realty and Construction, the development's listing agency, and Kitty Hawk attorney James Alexy devised another plan.
Bay Cliff owners buy their 35- by 55-foot building sites and the homeowners' association gives them a deed for the exclusive and perpetual use of several thousand square feet of surrounding land.
The homeowners' association retains title and pays property tax on the surrounding land. The individual homeowner takes responsibility for maintaining the property while enjoying more privacy.
Homeowners' association dues of $70 per month reflect this unusual arrangement. Dues pay for private roads; landscaping and maintenance for common areas; a 150-foot soundside pier; and a remnant of the original plan for luxury, the Claw Club, a beautiful waterside clubhouse with meeting space, game room, kitchen facilities and a large outdoor swimming pool and hot tub.
The revamping of Bay Cliff worked. When the bank took the project over in 1992, 56 of the development's 72 homesites were still unsold and only eight houses had been built. Today, 23 houses are built; three or four more are under way. All but 18 or 19 of the lots have been sold.
Ben Cubler, president of BC Realty and Construction, Kitty Hawk, helped Cooperative restructure Bay Cliff. He maintained an on-site sales office for nearly two years and built 10 of the subdivision's homes.
``We saw it mainly as a year-round community,'' he explained, but never ruled out its viability for vacation rentals or second homes.
This spring, Cubler's company completed a four-bedroom soundfront vacation cottage - Bay Cliff's first and only vacation rental property - for a New York owner. Though the house was listed too late for inclusion in their rental brochure, Kitty Dunes Realty booked nine weeks at $750 a week.
So much for the common wisdom that vacationers won't rent on Colington. ``We've had an excellent response,'' said Kitty Dunes rental manager Barbara Barco. Windsurfing renters, especially, like the soundside location and the amenities, she said.
``Everyone at Cooperative Bank for Savings is elated'' with Bay Cliff's success, said Cowan. When you put the subdivision in perspective with the economy, with the large number of other lots available in Dare County, and with its westside location, he said, ``We've done the right things.''
For more information about Bay Cliff, contact BC Realty and Construction, 4713 N. Croatan Hwy., Kitty Hawk, N.C. 27949, (919) 261-5050 or 1-800-238-4044 or any MLS Realtor on the Outer Banks. MEMO: Chris Kidder covers Outer Banks real estate for The Carolina Coast. Send
comments to her at P.O. Box 10, Nags Head, N.C. 27959.
by CNB