The "lookie loos" slow their cars and
stare when they drive past what appears to be a nearly 6,000-square-foot,
stone-and-stucco house in Mint Hill.
That's just the reaction developer J. Brooks Davis
was hoping for when he started The Villas of Brooks Knoll at Davis Trace,
off Idlewild Road near Interstate 485.
The 22-unit project will have only two residences
per building on more than seven acres within the 48-lot Davis Trace
single-family housing development.
"A lot of what you see is four to six units in
one building with a front-load garage," Davis said. "We didn't
want that. We wanted ours to look more like single-family houses and be
compatible with the neighborhood."
He worked with the town of Mint Hill on regulations
to allow what he's calling a prototype development of semi-attached homes
ranging from 2,000 square feet to 3,500 square feet and selling from
$300,000 to $400,000.
The building that's stopping motorists has a
3,100-square-foot unit and a 2,600-square-foot unit divided by a
sound-deadening brick firewall.
Similar to townhomes, every residence and lot will
be individually owned with exterior maintenance and lawn care provided
though an association.
A six-foot-high brick security wall will wrap the
villas, which will have large private yards with iron gates and two-car,
side-entry and rear-entry garages.
Each of the 11 one- and two-story buildings,
designed by Mirko Djuranovic of Impel Inc., will be different from each
other, similar to what buyers would find in a custom-home community.
"The first one is nearly complete, and we are
getting ready to start the second," said Diane Stillwell-Grooms, who
is handling project marketing.
The Villas of Brooks Knoll will use the initial
houses as models to promote sales, which will open later with a kickoff
event. Stillwell-Grooms said people who buy before a building is started
will be able to customize their homes.
Standard features include master bedrooms
downstairs, nine- to 15-foot ceilings, solid-surface countertops, designer
kitchens and security systems.
Stillwell-Grooms said the Davis Trace subdivision,
also developed by J. Brooks Davis, sold out in about a year. Single-family
houses there range from about $350,000 to more than $750,000.
The villas were inspired in part, Stillwell-Grooms
said, by empty nesters "who were looking for something a little more
upscale but hated to leave the Mint Hill area."
She is a partner with developer Davis of Brooks
Knoll Builders Inc. and contractor Johnny Griffin in the villas project,
valued at about $7.7 million.
"All three of us are local,"
Stillwell-Grooms said. "Those of us who have roots here have a
certain amount of pride and want to see this developed into a nice
neighborhood."
