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Community Centers: Growing Demand, Growing Opportunity
By Genilee Swope Parente
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The clubhouse at The Villages on Mount Hope Bay in Rhode Island. |
 Most potential home buyers today don’t just shop for their ideal house — they also shop for a community, many developers and builders agree.
Consequently, community amenities and community centers have become a marketing necessity for master planned communities, rather than community options.
According to Patrick Malloy, CEO of Patrick Malloy Communities in the greater Atlanta area, community centers and community amenities have grown in importance within the past decade as home owners in search of more house for their money have moved further from urban cores to master planned communities in the suburbs and exurbs.
“People are tired of driving,” Malloy said. “At the end of the day, they want to get their recreation — both passive and active — within their community. They want to be rewarded for dealing with the horrible traffic by getting knock-your-socks-off amenities.”
When Malloy developed City Square, a 900-home community in South Atlanta, more than 10 years ago, he had budgeted $700,000 for the community center. That investment — substantial for that time — included several tennis courts, a pool and a small greeting area that doubled as a sales center.
StoneBridge, Malloy’s newest community southwest of Atlanta in Newnan, Ga., has an amenities budget that dwarfs CitySquare's. First, he has budgeted $750,000 — more than the entire amenities budget for CitySquare — just for the entrance feature for the community, which, when completed, will have almost 300 fewer homes.
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The clubhouse and poolside amenities at Union Crossing near Atlanta, by Patrick Malloy Communities. | On top of that, Malloy has budgeted nearly $3 million — four times that of CitySquare ― for the amenities at StoneBridge. The first phase of the community’s amenities includes a clubhouse, a state-of-the-art fitness facility, a junior Olympic-size pool, a tot pool, tennis courts, a basketball court, a children’s playground, a village lawn and miles of walking paths.
Paul Johnson, senior vice president of community development for Rancho Mission Viejo, a 23,000-acre cattle ranch in South Orange, Calif., also believes in the importance of community amenities in today’s market.
“Research proves that the major reason a person would move to a master-planned community versus a stand-alone subdivision is for the greater facilities, amenities, conveniences and benefits associated within a community master plan,” Johnson said. “In most cases, people are looking for a community that fits their lifestyle, followed by a home that fits their budget and other needs.”
Rancho Mission Viejo, which has been family-owned since 1882, recently received Orange County approval to build 14,000 new homes as part of a comprehensive open space preservation/management and land use plan. All of the homes will be focused around community facilities and historic sites.
Community Centers, Urban-Style
Community centers aren’t limited to the popular single-family master planned communities in the suburbs or exurbs. They can also be found in newly developed urban communities, and the proliferation of community centers in city developments is keeping pace with their suburban counterparts, according to urban developers.
Swinerton Builders is a national commercial contractor that has been operating in the San Francisco area since before the great earthquake of 1906. About 30% of its business is residential ― condominiums, apartment buildings or mixed-use facilities — and it includes everything from upscale high-rise apartments to affordable housing projects and special-use facilities such as senior housing.
“People are looking for exclusivity, so developers must make their projects more attractive than the buildings next door in order to be able to sell them,” said Michael Neumann, project executive at Swinerton Builders.
With large, for-profit efforts such as high rises in prime locations, community centers have become a major marketing tool.
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Rooftop amenites at One Embarcadero South in San Francisco. |
| At the One Embarcadero South high rise near the San Francisco Giant’s new baseball stadium, the mid-level apartments were upgraded and converted into high-end condominiums. The renovation also included the creation of a central plaza with a landscaped pool, high-tech meeting room and work spaces, and a fitness center, Neumann explained.
One Embarcadero South competes for buyers with surrounding, equally upscale high-rise condominiums — with the most successful ones providing top-notch amenities, Neumann said.
“It’s all about branding and lifestyle choices,” Neumann pointed out. “In a very busy lifestyle, that means offering conveniences such as a drycleaner in the building, technology that allows remote offices and a concierge who will buy tickets to the ball game.”
Answering the Needs of Affordable Housing and Special Uses
Community centers serve a different role in affordable housing communities and special-use facilities that is based on the sociology and purpose of the building, Neumann said.
In senior housing units in less safe areas of the city, for example, the centers are designed to serve as a place where residents can socialize in a protected area. Swinerton's On Lok housing project, designed to provide housing in the Chinatown-North Beach area of San Francisco for frail seniors, includes a rooftop garden with protected seating designed to include “landscape therapy” in a safe environment, Neumann said.
In special-use facilities such as the Derek Silva Community in San Francisco — an old hotel that Swinerton helped renovate in order to house low-income people living with HIV/AIDS — the community center is designed to draw people out of their units to socialize.
In urban renewal projects, the centers also can include training facilities and computer rooms where residents can receive career assistance or daycare facilities so parents can work, Neumann explained.
Who Builds the Community Centers?
Who actually designs and builds a community center depends on preferences of the community developer and regional considerations.
Arthur Casey, director of development for Starwood-Tiverton, LLC, which built The Villages on Mount Hope Bay active adult community in Tiverton, R.I., used the same designer and contractor to create the clubhouse as he did for the residences — in order to ensure “compatibility” between the buildings.
The Villages on Mount Hope Bay, a 98-acre waterfront community, will include 290 town houses and mid-rise units and a clubhouse with amenities that include a beach (and eventual beach house) for swimming, docks for fishing and boating and, eventually, an old-fashioned New England-style inn with a full-service spa, restaurant, shops and seasonal café.
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Maritime amenities at The Villages on New Hope Bay include docks, a beach, trails and more. |
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“The clubhouse was built into a hillside so the ‘water side’ of the clubhouse had two levels of social spaces — each with a large expanse of windows to maximize water views,” Casey explained. The design and materials used in its construction also had to take into account high winds and seawater exposure.
In the Atlanta area, Malloy said he prefers to use light commercial construction contractors who have experience and specialize in creating community centers and amenities. Whenever possible, Malloy said he has the contractor begin construction of the community center before Malloy begins building the houses.
“We feel this really shows the prospective home owner that we are committed to this community,” he said.
Rancho Mission Viejo does not use the same builders for its residences that it uses for amenities, according to Johnson. Instead, “we select reputable designers to help us refine our design ideas, and then use general contractors to help construct the facilities.”
Centers as Community Investments
Home owners are shopping for communities with amenities because they want to be able to relax, socialize and be entertained close to home and within their communities.
“I believe there are enlightened master community developers setting the national trend — furthering connectivity, town building and creating the total, whole community people are seeking,” said Ranch Mission Viejo's Johnson.
However, builders and developers also should be looking at community centers as sound investments toward the future, according to Malloy.
“I feel strongly that as economic cycles ebb and flow, the communities that have strong amenities will be the ones that do well — even in the downward trends — because they have created a brand for themselves,” Malloy said.
Genilee Swope Parente is the managing editor of NAHB’s Commercial Builder magazine and Building Women magazine. For more information, e-mail Parente.
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