I didn’t necessarily want to, but when I pulled up to a showing last week in Abbey Springs, I instinctively closed the my car’s moonroof cover. The day was bright and sunny, not warm, but sunny. But when I pulled into that driveway of that home in Abbey Springs, there was shade. Ample shade. So much shade, not solid shade, but lengths of shade and lines of shade and straps and bolts made of shade and interwoven shade. All that connective shade leading to one giant round orb of shade that would swallow up the driveway and most of the lawn. It was deep, dark shade, shade made omnipresent by the otherworldly creature that rose from the dirt behind this particular home. The positives: water pressure inside this home was almost certainly potent. The negatives: this home appeared to be being slowly eaten by a giant, steel, shadow generating water tower.
That was a touch of hyperbole, but there was a pretty foreboding water tower stretching up from immediately behind this home. Normally, that might hurt the chances of a particular property selling. Unless, of course, you’re on HGTV. I was watching that the other day when some gentleman who appeared to have a reddish neck walked onto the back deck of a particular home, with a particularly sweaty Realtor leading the way. There was, not 50′ from the back lot line, a giant concrete and steel base for some equally momentous overhead electrical lines. Had it been summer, and the strain greater, I’m certain they would have been buzzing to such an extent that the audio would have had to be dubbed over the buzz of current. The Realtor told him to plant some trees. Right. Plant some trees, pal, and in roughly 120 years they’ll almost do the trick.
Abbey Springs. A water tower hovering over your home might not be a great thing, but in Abbey Springs, bad things become tolerable, and good things become great. No sooner did I declare Abbey Springs to have a touch of the flu that they jumped up, dusted themselves off, and found a way to sell two more properties in the last couple weeks. The one pending sale I wrote about last time has since closed (Saint Andrews Trail, $505k), and with these two new pending contracts, Abbey Springs should be primed to enter the spring with a nice little bit of momentum on their hands. I’ll admit that I was wrong on Abbey Springs, but it’s only a partial admission of error. Any full admission will not come until the end of the year when we get to review what happened in this development during all of 2011.
I’ve been expecting Abbey Springs to experience a bit of a stall. I keep waiting for this to happen, and it keeps not happening. The activity makes sense I suppose, as there have been three new pending contracts written on lake access single family homes priced in the $300ks of late, and it’s reasonable to expect that same price range momentum to carry over into Abbey Springs. I’ve said it a thousand times, and for the sake of filling space today, I shall say it again: If you’re a buyer looking for a lakefront development with a country club atmosphere, then Abbey Springs is for you. If you’re looking solely for a golfing destination, Geneva National is your best bet. There are 28 homes and condominiums currently on the market, with offerings in every price range from $130k to $1MM.
Owing to the kindness of a client, I’ve been able to eat a few meals at the Abbey Springs Yacht Club recently. The restaurant on the southern shore of Geneva is open only to Abbey Springs residents and to those who purchase memberships that enable dining privileges there. The little secret about that restaurant is that it’s open to anyone who wants to pay a modest $150 fee for an annual single membership, or $200 for a couples membership. Eat there a dozen or so times and the cost of membership becomes an afterthought. Buy a membership and eat there once, and your one meal was ridiculously expensive.
The restaurant is, by my measured palate, quite good. To be fair, I have only sampled a couple of the salads, and a bowl or two of soup, but everything has been attentively prepared. The service is pleasant, and the table bread is served with a generous dish of butter, which is a certain way to find yourself in my good graces. The prices are fair, without vacillating between being cheap or absurdly expensive, and the setting is serene by winter and exciting by summer. It’s a nice little white table clothed restaurant, and if you’re yet to try it you have two options. You could buy a dining membership as I have, or you could pick one of those 28 available residences and gain access the old fashioned way.