SEPTEMBER 2005:
Development of 23 homes planned to evoke images of a more neighborly past

By KATHRYN HELMKE, kehelmke@naplesnews.com
September 10, 2005

Wander into Hemingway Place, and Neapolitans will see something not typical of Naples.

Lexey Swall/Staff Employees of Marzucco Concrete lay brick for a house on Lot 6 of Hemingway Place, a new community east of Goodlette-Frank Road and just south of Solana Road. Plans are for the community to have 23 homes in a traditional neighborhood design.

The community off Goodlette-Frank Road has no Mediterranean-style homes. The garages don't sit in front of the houses, and sidewalks line both sides of the street.

The developers of the 23 home site community didn't want it to be normal.

Instead of building just another subdivision, Basik Development has deed-restricted Hemingway Place, put in a small neighborhood park, installed old-fashioned lamp posts, and asked its residents to build their homes in a classical style of architecture.

When the Naples-based company bought the 11-acre site off Goodlette-Frank Road, a half mile south of Pine Ridge Road, Realtors told the company what it should do - Mediterranean, said Keith Basik, president.

But this piece of a land was a rare find, he said. It was one of the last pieces of undeveloped property in the Naples area, and it commanded respect.

The company started considering other options and began to work with some of the ideas of traditional neighborhood design, where people can shop, sleep, work and play in one neighborhood.

"There's a trend going around the country where we're going back to doing neighborhoods the way they were done 80 to 100 years ago," said Bud Lawrence, a residential designer with offices in Orlando and Fort Myers.

At the same time there has been a resurgence of interest in older, classical styles of architecture, he said.

"It was beautiful, and it's still beautiful," said Lawrence, who reviews and approves all the homes in Hemingway Place.

In Hemingway Place, the property's size didn't allow for all elements of traditional neighborhood design. But front porches are required on all homes, and garages must be set back from the front of the house.

That means the garage isn't the predominant feature of the home, Basik said, and front porches make the development more of a community.

Lexey Swall/Staff Homes in Hemingway Place have architectural styling of homes in places such as Charleston, Savannah and Key West.

Garages are best behind the house for that reason, Lawrence said.

"We set houses far back on the street," he said. "We should pull them up close, put porches on them, make walkable communities, get to know your neighbor again."

But the garage still needs to be there, said Michael Stein, president of Stein Builders, which owns or is building on eight of the lots. It needs to match the house and be practical. People want to be able to get from their car to their home with groceries and kids in hand without getting soaked.

That created a design challenge, he said.

It took some effort to get the builders involved, Basik said.

They didn't understand how these homes could fit on the lots, but now all lots are sold either to builders or homeowners.

"I could see the vision right away," said Sheri Samotin, whose home in Hemingway Place is being built by Stein Builders.

Samotin bought in Hemingway Place for a couple of reasons including the location, the developer's concept, the scale of a more traditional neighborhood versus a large master plan community and the architectural alternatives, she said.

"I'm tired of seeing the Naples interpretation of Mediterranean," Samotin said.

It is no longer related to the architecture from where it came, she said.

Around Naples, many homes look similar, and that grows old, Basik said.

Many communities end up looking dated, but classic designs last.

"We build houses to tear them down every 15 years," Lawrence said.

Someone can spend $1 million on a house, and it "looks like the dickens," Lawrence said.

And after five years, the homeowner wants something else, Lawrence said.

Hemingway Place is deed-restricted and a review by the architectural review committee is mandatory, Basik said.

"It's a way to protect everyone's property," he said.

The company supplied buyers and builders with a variety of floor plans and styles that would work, Basik said. But all the homeowners and builders can customize their home and build what they want as long as it passes the committee review.

"It's really amazing what you can do on some of these lots with the right architect," he said.

The spec home on lot 1 is likely to sell for around $1.6 million, Basik said.

But Lawrence, who reviews the plans, said the plans need help at first. Today's designers and architects aren't knowledgeable of this type of architecture, he said.

Designers today don't know how to proportion correctly.

Once the elevation is designed, the inside of the house is no problem, Stein said. It can be configured any way the homeowner likes. In Stein Builder's model home, the home follows modern tastes with an open and airy floor plan and high ceilings.

The model home and lot costs around $1.4 million now, Stein said.

In Samotin's home, the layout is traditional with distinct rooms and a hallway. It has a butler's pantry and will have a clawfoot tub in the master bath, he said.

The Louisiana Plantation-style home should be completed this fall.

Samotin said she enjoyed going through the design process and participating in the details that planning a home like hers entailed.

"I just like variety, and that's kind of what I liked about the developer's vision," Samotin said.

The homes can't be cookie-cutter, she said.

For more information about Hemingway Place, call 262-3210.

http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/business/article/0,2071,NPDN_14901_4069229,00.html

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