Posted: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 8:33 pm | Updated: 8:38 am, Wed Mar 12, 2014.
David Sinclair/Managing Editor
A potential $168 million development in the old service district on the outskirts of downtown Pinehurst has ties to some star power.
Blaine East, of Landcore, said in a presentation to the Village Council Tuesday night that they have brought in some “unique partners” for Village Place at Pinehurst, including a restaurant owned by Robert Irvine, who has a show on the Food Network, Justin Timberlake’s Southern Hospitality restaurant and a winery owned by Richard Childress of NASCAR fame.
He added that Irvine would also like to build a production studio next to the restaurant to tape programs for his show.
“We’ve taken this core and created this fantastic entertainment component,” East said.
It would also include upscale shops, microbrewery, cigar bar, small hotel, village market, offices and residential units.
Each of the restaurants will be flanked by retail businesses, which he said are “a driving factor” in the development.
East said the plans include a small “boutique” hotel that will not “interfere” with existing hotels in the village. The plan did not indicate how many rooms it would have.
“We are not talking about a large facility,” he told the council.
East said the Village Market grocery store would be similar to the Department Store in the downtown during the days when the Tufts family owned Pinehurst.
“This will be a great retail facility,” he said. “People can walk to it.”
East said the development would employee 450 people, and its businesses are projected to have gross sales of $63 million annually. He said it would generate $2.25 million in property taxes for the village and the county and about $6.1 million in sales tax revenues annually.
East said the development would have an “old town character.” He said it is not intended to hurt the restaurants and shops in the Village Center, but to enhance the entire area.
“We have a chance to grow our retail in the village,” he said.
Koontz added that they envision a lot of outdoor dining and people walking back and forth from the village center, as well as the nearby Pinehurst Arboretum and Rassie Wicker Park.
“We want this to become a great pedestrian plaza,” he said.
Koontz said the plan would also extend Rattlesnake Trail, which would be renamed Village Place Drive, through the development, providing better connectivity from the soon-to-be widened N.C. 211 into the Village Center.
“We felt we could provide something very exciting,” East said. “Our goal is to have a new destination.”
The buildings would be spread around the development to create open space. Residential units would be above the stores and offices.
Walkways and paths would connect to the Village Center and the nearby Pinehurst Arboretum and Rassie Wicker Park. There would be a trolley service, just like in the early days of Pinehurst.
East said the final plan for the development will be based on what the community wants and will support. Required meetings will be held to gather input from residents before a final plan is submitted to the village.
“We have a passion for this, to bring something truly great for the area,” he said.
The concept plans drew praise from council members and the public.
“You know I am a hard sell,” resident Jack Farrell said. “This is pretty exciting. This is the best A-1 plan I’ve ever seen for this area. I know the devil is in the detail.”
Farrell added, “I am looking forward to my tax reduction.”
Mark Lyczkowski, who lives at Pinehurst No. 6, said this will create a “destination” that would complement the existing downtown.
“Landcore has the funding in place to do this,” he said. “You have a great developer who can bring something great.”
Mayor Nancy Fiorillo said it is a “very interesting concept and beautiful design.” She said it must be a “community-centered” plan.
“We need to take a deep breath,” she said. “What will the community support? It will not happen overnight.”
East said the developers also plan to work closely with the merchants and business owners in the downtown in marketing the entire area. He said that will start with the Village Green and “expand outward.”
He said if the core village is vibrant, “it helps everyone. Let’s all roll up our selves and work together.”
Also during the meeting, the council voted unanimously to allow retirement communities on a case-by-case basis in the Office and Professional zoning district and to rezone five acres off Murdocksville Road behind Olmsted Village for a 56-unit apartment complex for people age 55 and older.
The council turned down a nearly identical request last April but voted earlier this year to reconsider the application after being threatened with a possible housing discrimination complaint.
Also, a majority of council members are not in favor of hiring attorneys to represent the Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) and the Board of Adjustment in the case of an appeal of an HPC decision last month to reject plans for a home on Everette Road. The Village Council hired attorneys for both boards when it appealed the HPC’s denial of plans to improve the Village Green.
Council member John Strickland brought up the matter, saying it was a matter of being fair to hire attorneys for the two boards.
Mayor Nancy Fiorillo said Village Attorney Mike Newman had contacted council members individually to ask about whether the village should pay for attorneys for the two boards. She said neither board has asked the council to provide an attorney and that Newman was trying to see how council members felt. No vote has been taken on the issue.
Contact David Sinclair at (910) 693-2462 or dsinclair@thepilot.com
The News Tribune March 4, 2014
This 2007 photo shows the Chambers Creek Properties site, including Chambers Bay golf course. A developer proposes to build a second course and a resort hotel on the site.
The online snipers are already weighing in on a $120 million proposal for a golf course and resort hotel/conference center at Chambers Bay. And they’re not happy. Not happy at all.
Yes, folks, let’s look this gift horse squarely in the mouth. After all, it’s not as if the developer – Bob Sonnenblick of Los Angeles – would foot the bill for the project.
Oh, wait a minute: He would.
“We put up 100 percent of the money,” he told The News Tribune’s Steve Maynard.
Repeat: He would pay for it. Not taxpayers, not sewer customers. All we’d have to do is enjoy the tourism revenue and sales tax money the project would generate – along with the jobs, of course. Can’t have that.
Sonnenblick Development – which has been involved in a number of high-end projects all over the country – is in very preliminary talks with Pierce County about a $120 million proposal for the Chambers Bay site in University Place. It has until mid-June to to come up with a project and financing plan. Even if it gets the green light, nothing would start happening until after the U.S. Open in June 2015.
So there’s no harm in seeing what Sonnenblick envisions for the site. At the very least, it would be exciting to see what a company with Sonnenblick’s impressive portfolio thinks is doable at Chambers Bay.
For their part, county officials have to ask whether the region could support another golf course – even one with an incredible view that golfers can get around on with carts, something they can’t do at Chambers Bay, a public links-style course owned by Pierce County. After four years, the course started making money only last year. The Sonnenblick project would be privately operated and would use the same course designer as Chambers Bay, Robert Trent Jones Jr.
Other questions: The public worked for months on the master site plan for Chambers Creek Properties, and it involved only one golf course. How would adding a second, 180-acre course affect the variety of public uses that were identified in the master planning process?
Would there be any impact on the hugely popular walking trail? Would a second course be any barrier to future national tournaments? And what would be the impacts of additional traffic on the surrounding community?
None of these questions necessarily suggests a deal-killer. In fact, it’s a luxury to have such an important proposal to ask questions about. It means private development is finally discovering the potential of the Chambers Creek Properties site.
Who knows whether the Sonnenblick proposal is the one that will materialize. Just the fact that the discussion is happening is a welcome one.
Read more here: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2014/03/04/3508866/proposed-resort-could-be-a-tourist.html#storylink=cpy
Friday, February 28, 2014
By John Strege
Chambers Bay in University Place, Wash., which will host the U.S. Open in 2015, is not for everyone, given its difficulty quotient and the fact it’s a a walking-only course. But is a more accommodating second course in its future?
A Los Angeles development company, Sonnenblick Development, has entered into a preliminary agreement with Pierce County, which owns Chambers Bay, to build a 220-room hotel there, according to the News Tribune, which also reported that a second 18-hole golf course is included in the agreement.
Robert Trent Jones II, who designed the Chambers Bay course, said it is premature to reach any conclusion. “We’re doing a study on behalf of [Sonnenblick Development],” Jones said from Chambers Bay on Friday. “He [Robert Sonnenblick] has an opportunity to build a hotel there and he would like to see more golf.
“But the whole thing is up in the air. There may or may not be [a golf course], but it won’t be anything like Chambers Bay. It would be more like a family course.”
The question is whether there is enough room on the Chambers Creek property to the south of the existing course to accommodate another course. Jones suggested that in the event there isn’t enough room that a nine-hole course with different sets of tees that would allow it to be played like an 18-hole course is an option.
“There’s a whole resort golfer community who won’t play [Chambers Bay] right now because they don’t walk 18 holes,” Sonnenblick told the News Tribune.
A hotel has long been planned for the site, but a previous developer was unable to secure financing and the project was put off until after the U.S. Open.
Read Original Article
A Los Angeles developer is contemplating building a 220-room hotel and a new golf course at Chambers Bay in University Place, site of the 2015 U.S. Open.
Updated: Feb 28, 2014, 9:09am PST
Ben Miller
Contributing Editor- Puget Sound Business Journal
Pierce County is working with a Los Angeles developer, Sonnenblick Development, to build a 220-room hotel and another 18-hole golf course at Chambers Bay in University Place.
The News Tribune in Tacoma reports Pierce County is giving Sonnenblick until mid-June to come up with its project and financing plan. Construction on the $120 million project would not start until after the 2015 U.S. Open in June.
Sonnenblick officials said the second course is important because it would allow golf carts to be used. Chambers Bay currently doesn’t allow carts to be used.
This isn’t the first time a hotel development has been planned for Chambers Bay. As reported earlier this week in the Puget Sound Business Journal, plans for a hotel were included in the original plans for the course, which opened in 2008.
By Steve Maynard
Tacoma News TribuneFebruary 27, 2014
Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2014/02/27/3070502/los-angeles-developer-has-big.html#storylink=cpy
An overview of Chambers Bay Golf Links in University Place, February 26, 2014.
PETER HALEY – Staff photographer: The News Tribune
A California hotel developer is formulating plans to build a 220-room hotel and a second 18-hole golf course at Chambers Bay in University Place.
Pierce County has entered into a preliminary agreement with Sonnenblick Development, giving the firm until mid-June to develop its project and financing plans.
If a formal deal is reached after that, construction would not start until after the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay golf course in June 2015.
It’s the third attempt to get a project off the ground at the county-owned property and the first attempt since 2010, when another developer failed to secure financing.
A resort hotel was part of the 2010 plan as well. But building a second golf course is a new addition.
Besides the hotel, Los Angeles developer Bob Sonnenblick said he wants to build another 18-hole golf course where, unlike the Chambers Bay course, golfers could ride carts. Chambers Bay prohibits carts to prevent damage to fescue grass on the links-style course.
Sonnenblick said adding a second golf course is crucial to attracting more golfers to the hotel he would build.
“There’s a whole resort golfer community who won’t play this course right now … because they don’t walk 18 holes,” Sonnenblick said in an interview with The News Tribune.
Sonnenblick said the third part of the project is a retail and restaurant pavilion near the waterfront, potentially with kayaking and sailing. But it won’t be included in the initial design.
His firm has hired Robert Trent Jones Jr.’s company to design the second golf course. Jones designed the original Chambers Bay course.
An architect is planning a three- to four-story hotel — with conference and banquet space and a golf clubhouse — that would sit at the top of the property overlooking Chambers Bay.
Sonnenblick, who is chairman of Sonnenblick Development, estimated the entire project would cost about $120 million. A championship golf course, about 7,000 yards in length, would take up 180 acres. The hotel would sit on another 15 acres.
Deputy County Executive Kevin Phelps said the county hasn’t calculated how many of the 930 acres at Chambers Creek Properties could still be developed. The Chambers Bay course takes up 300 acres. Other areas such as setbacks, buffers and land to expand the Chambers Creek Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant are off limits to development.
“The hotel’s no problem whatsoever,” Phelps said. “The real issue is, can they fit in the golf course and maintain all the open space and amenities that we expect to have at Chambers Creek Properties?”
Phelps said the county “is diligent in that we still want to have open space, recreation, trails and off-leash areas.”
“Those are musts,” he said. “They are not options.”
Sonnenblick said there’s “plenty of room” for the entire project.
He and the county would have to reach an agreement on plans for the project and a lease before construction could start.
“We put up 100 percent of the money,” Sonnenblick said.
Either party can back out of the first step — a one-year, pre-development memo of understanding — without any cost to the county.
“We lose nothing by seeing what they have to put on the table,” County Executive Pat McCarthy told County Council members this week.
The county can’t negotiate with other developers for Chambers Bay while the agreement is in place. Phelps said another party likely would enter into the same type of agreement if Sonnenblick and the county decide to part ways.
Council Chairman Dan Roach said the council first learned of the agreement from McCarthy on Feb. 19, after she had signed it on Feb. 14.
Roach said he’s hopeful development at Chambers Bay will occur, providing tourism and sales tax dollars to help pay for the county-owned golf course.
The course made money last year, said county spokesman Hunter George. It lost money in the four previous years, requiring an interfund loan to make debt payments.
Both the County Council and University Place City Council would have to approve changes to the master plan for Chambers Creek Properties, which doesn’t include a second golf course, said University Place City Attorney Steve Victor.
Victor said the project — which would require permits from the city — would be a “great amenity” for University Place.
“But it’s a big project and an expensive project,” Victor said. “And as we’ve all seen, not every idea that is investigated comes to pass. From my perspective, it’s wait and see.”
Sonnenblick said he expects to acquire financing.
“We are in a totally different real estate financing market today versus six years ago,” he said Wednesday while sipping an Arnold Palmer in the Chambers Bay grill. “There’s a lot of money around today for well-conceived, well-located, first-class projects.”
Sonnenblick said his company acquires bank financing and does business with a dozen state pension funds that become equity partners for projects.
Phelps said Sonnenblick’s company has a “tremendous track record” of developing major projects in Los Angeles and elsewhere.
Sonnenblick said his firm is developing its first golf course — with a 335-room Westin Hotel — adjacent to Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina, where this year’s U.S. Open will be played in June on Pinehurst No. 2. It also was an investor in a golf course in Boca Raton, Fla.
He said his company is developing six hotels over the next two years totalling $500 million, about half of which are financed.
Golf aside, Sonnenblick said he expects the Chambers Bay location overlooking Puget Sound will be a big draw.
When hotel guests look out at the view of the water, he said, “they’re going to love this.”
Steve Maynard: 253-597-8647 steve.maynard@thenewstribune.com @TNTstevemaynard
Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2014/02/27/3070502/los-angeles-developer-has-big.html#storylink=cpy
