Company founder and chairman Brian O'Neill tells GlobeSt.com he tied up the 15-acre property six months ago after discovering it while golfing at the club and recently closed on the acquisition. The seller was Peter deSavory, owner of Carnegie Abbey, known by the world's elite for its private golf, boating, spa and equestrian facilities.
The skeleton for the project will be an existing, 220-ft-tall former wire-stretching facility on land tucked between the club's golf course and the bay. Plans call for the concrete and steel structure to be divided into 16-stories, covered in limestone pre cast and native Rhode Island fieldstone, and built out with 59 ultra-luxury units averaging about 2,000 sf apiece and featuring 14-ft floor-to-ceiling windows. A circle of 21 three- and four-bedroom Nantucket-style cottages will surround the tower, as will a natural pond. Prices will range from $750,000 for a home site to more than $10 million for the condo tower's 16th floor penthouse suite.
"The demand is five people for every one of these units; it's the only oceanfront high-rise condo building overlooking a golf course that exists from Washington, DC to the tip of Maine," O'Neill tells GlobeSt.com. "We're holding a lottery in early May just to see who gets on the waiting list to reserve one of the units."
In addition to the project's uniqueness, O'Neill says demand is high because many of the wealthy golfers in Nantucket, Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Long Island cannot play there because the clubs are full. To make sure they will be able to play at Carnegie Abbey, O'Neill says he has purchased 50 memberships.
O'Neill says the project is fully approved and construction drawings will be filed in the next 60 days. Construction will begin sometime during the next five months, with delivery scheduled for 2005. Banknorth, New England's third largest bank and one of the top 40 commercial banking companies in the US, is providing the senior debt for the project. Prudential is providing the subdebt, and O'Neill is providing the equity. O'Neill says the cost of the project is north of $1,000 per sf.
Architects and designers working on the project include Newport Collaborative Architects Inc., Burt Hill Kosar Rittelmann Associates, The Sieger Suarez Architectural Partnership and Tom Hall Associates Inc. The interior design is being created by Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo, the exclusive designer for the Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. New England architect J. Graham Goldsmith of Nantucket is designing the cottage community. The Marketing Directors of New York is the exclusive broker for the development.
"Our commitment is to fulfill Peter's (deSavory's) dramatic vision by creating a community that is respectful of the Bay's natural beauty while delivering unparalleled luxury and privacy for an audience of discriminating sportsmen," says O'Neill. "At the same time, we are privileged to preserve and restore one of the finest remaining properties on the Narragansett Bay.
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