Developer still sees promise in foreclosed community in Currituck County

Currituck County's only age-restricted community has gone into foreclosure, but its developer says the project will succeed when the housing market recovers.

VOC LLC, developer of Waterside Villages in Grandy, went into foreclosure proceedings with a $12.4 million debt to Wachovia Bank. Auctioned May 22, the property was sold to the bank for a high bid of $7.3 million. The deadline for an upset bid was June 2.

"It's all market-driven," Jim Rose, member and manager of VOC, wrote in an e-mail Tuesday. "We were 75 percent sold out and when the market changed, most walked from their contracts. Waterside is a great project and it will make it."

Located on 77 acres that include waterfront property, Waterside Villages offered homes and condominiums selling for around $350,000 to people age 55 and older.

As Currituck's only age-restricted community, it was promoted as the right idea at the right time for a new kind of high-density, resort-like neighborhood catering to the county's growing population of retirees.

Leading up to the project's approval, county officials amended ordinances in 2004, believing retired homeowners would increase local spending and the tax base with no effect on the school system.

Homes on the market in Currituck and Dare counties have swelled to about 3,000, more than double the number when Waterside Villages first went on the market in 2005, said Willo Kelly, government affairs director for the Outer Banks Association of Realtors and the Outer Banks Home Builders Association.

A Web site touts nearby golf courses, sites on the Outer Banks and shopping in Norfolk and Virginia Beach. Amenities include a clubhouse, pool, tennis courts, a dock on the Currituck Sound and a recreation and workout center.

But Currituck lacks medical facilities, the waterfront area lacks deep-water boat slips and the nearest golf course sits across U.S. 158, a five-lane highway, said Ben Woody, planning director for Currituck County.

"I'm not a big fan of age-restricted housing," he said.

Waterside Villages is the only neighborhood on the Currituck mainland offering condominiums. About 12 other pending projects include condos mixed with single-family housing and businesses but do not have age limits, Woody said.

Homes in Waterside Villages already sold and with loan payments up to date were not part of the foreclosure.

Jeff Hampton, (252) 338-0159, jeff.hampton@pilotonline.com