THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, December 24, 1994 TAG: 9412220436
SECTION: REAL ESTATE WEEKLY PAGE: 3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY KATHLEEN BUTLER, SPECIAL TO REAL ESTATE WEEKLY
LENGTH: Long : 118 lines
In the early 1970s, beer giant Anheuser-Busch bought 3,600 acres of undeveloped land along the James River south of Williamsburg to build a brewery.
All but 700 of those acres became Kingsmill on the James, a bustling, planned community of both residential and resort neighborhoods that's celebrating its 20th anniversary immersed in the region's natural landscape and wildlife.
Tom Vaughan, who moved to Kingsmill in 1975 when only two streets had been paved, was one of the community's first residents.
``We felt like we pretty much owned the place, because there were just so few people,'' he says. ``It was a very enjoyable place to be, with so much beauty.''
Kingsmill, the brainchild of Anheuser-Busch Companies, is owned by Busch Properties, Inc. Of the community's 2,900 acres, today only 250 acres along the James River remain to be developed, says John Hagee, Kingsmill's general manager of real estate sales.
Designed as a planned community, Kingsmill has developed even beyond the scope imagined by some of its earliest residents like Vaughan. In the economically turbulent mid-'70s, Vaughan says he was searching for a stable community. The financial backing of Anheuser-Busch, he says, provided that stability and security.
``I had heard all plans and felt like it would grow,'' he says, ``but I couldn't foresee the convention center and three golf courses and so many neighborhoods.''
What started as a golf course and few neighborhoods of upscale homes now includes three golf courses, a sports complex, a resort and conference center, a marina and homes ranging in price from $140,000 to well over $1 million.
Prospective residents can choose from resort villas, townhouses and single-family dwellings in a variety of styles from the contemporary ranch to the two-story colonial.
``We have just about every type of housing product you can imagine, with the exception of high-rise condos,'' Hagee says.
Patio homes, designed for the ``empty nester,'' are single-story houses on smaller lots that have been popular with the area's market of retirees and are priced accordingly, Hagee says. Burwell's Landing offers 11 riverfront lots from $600,000 to $750,000.
The resort area features 100 acres of one-, two- and three-bedroom condominiums that are privately owned, but managed by Kingsmill Resort and rented out to resort guests.
Hagee himself has watched the property grow from about 100 homes when he first started 18 years ago, to 1,200 single-family house and 750 multifamily units today.
But despite that growth, Hagee says Kingsmill has maintained its commitment to preserving the area's natural beauty. Ponds have been left undisturbed and most houses are surrounded by woods.
Throughout the construction, Hagee says, trees six inches or more in diameter were not cut down. Some neighborhoods zoned for multifamily housing have been developed with single-family homes, leaving more open space, he says.
``What we've done is really built at a much lower density than allowed,'' he says. ``When you drive in, you get the feeling you're driving into a national park.''
Throughout the years, Kingsmill has developed a reputation as one of the region's premier communities, and Hagee says that distinction has grown by word of mouth, not outside marketing.
``Most of our sales come from our existing client base,'' he says. ``We don't have to do a lot of marketing.''
In the beginning, Kingsmill did concentrate on marketing, but Hagee says efforts were ineffective because the property was ``ahead of its time.'' However, once the Peninsula began to grow, Kingsmill blossomed.
The increased interest in golf and the televising of the Anheuser-Busch Golf Classic - held at Kingsmill - put the community in the national spotlight.
By the mid-'80s, a study showed that 95 percent of the dwellings bought by people moving into the area and looking for property in the Kingsmill price range were bought at Kingsmill, Hagee says.
``The Anheuser-Busch Golf Classic gave us national recognition, name recognition,'' Hagee says. ``We started to get a lot more interest frofm areas convenient to here.''
The addition of the resort and conference center in 1988 also helped boost sales, Hagee says, because it gave visitors a taste of living in Kingsmill.
Now the company concentrates primarily on local advertising and going after prospective buyers who have either been referred by current residents or indicated an interest in the property while staying at the resort, Hagee says.
Today, Kingsmill property continues to sell. In Wareham's Point, 23 townhomes ranging in price from $300,000 to $475,000 were sold in eight months, Hagee says.
As Kingsmill celebrates its 20th anniversary, Hagee says he looks to the future. In the next eight to 10 years, Busch Properties plans to develop the remaining riverfront property into single-family homes, townhouses and luxury condominium apartments.
In the end, about 2,800 families are expected to live in the Williamsburg community.
In 1981, Vaughan was transferred from the area and moved out of Kingsmill. But 11 years later, during a trip to Virginia Beach, Vaughan and his wife drove through Kingsmill and fell in love again with the community they had once called home.
They now live in one of 69 multifamily units in Wareham's Point overlooking Wareham's Pond, and Vaughan says he is delighted with the secure, attractive community that has developed around him.
``To have lived here at the very beginning and been accustomed to it being small and quaint and to knowing everybody, you would think we wouldn't be satisfied, but I think they've done it in an excellent manner,'' Vaughan says. ``In spite of the numbers, you still feel like you have privacy no matter where you live.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Robie Ray
The James River is a big lure to Kingsmill residents. Today, only
250 acres along the water remain undeveloped.
Kingsmill color photo
The Anheuser-Busch Golf Classic put Kingsmill on the map. Here,
Curtis Strange tees off in the '93 tourney.
by CNB