Developers prep final phase of GreyHawk

Developer Sam Rodgers remembered when GreyHawk Landing was just a dairy farm on the north side of State Road 64.

The property had been slated for a golf course, but the deal fell through. Rodgers seized the opportunity, even though people told him not to bother because the land was in the middle of nowhere.

“I said, ‘You’re wrong,’” Rodgers recalled. “Of course, it’s been a very successful project. You have to have a little bit of foresight.”

The nearly 800-unit GreyHawk Landing community he built sold out before the start of the housing crisis in 2007. Now, the development’s expansion, called GreyHawk West, is nearing completion as well. The 482-home project opened three years ago.

“GreyHawk has always been popular,” said Rodgers, noting the GreyHawk West project is a joint venture between his company, Sam Rodgers Homes, and Homes by Towne. “It’s the location first, then the amenities. There’s 40% open space. Every lot backs up to a lake or a preserve, except for a corner lot. Every lot has a view.”

The Manatee County Commission on Jan. 5 approved the execution and recording of the final plat for a 70-lot subdivision in GreyHawk West. Only a sub-phase of about 30 homes remains to be platted. Then, the development will be complete.

With the plat approval in hand, Rodgers expects GreyHawk West will begin selling lots in the new neighborhood this month. He expects the community to be completely sold out in about a two years.

Homes in GreyHawk West start in the $300,000s.

Homes by Towne, an original builder in GreyHawk, said it will sell out even sooner than what Rodgers expects, according to Kitt Kearney, the company’s vice president of sales and marketing.

“We’ve been very pleased with the process and the product, and how the whole project has been moving along,” Kearney said. “We feel we’re going to be out within a year and half, maybe. We’re coming to a close.”

GreyHawk West opened in 2013 during the Homebuilder Association’s annual Parade of Homes. More than 500 people came through the new community’s models during the monthlong model-home showcase.

“It was the right timing,” Kearney said, noting homeowners like the amenities — walking trails, two community pools, a clubhouse, a fitness center and athletic fields, all covered by community development district assessments, rather than monthly homeowners association dues. “We have a lot of people who have moved from Lakewood Ranch. They like that it’s mature. This area has been mature (landscaping) since the beginning of the project. It really makes it.”

As GreyHawk West nears the end of its development, Sam Rodgers Homes looks for more opportunities to construct within the greater Lakewood Ranch area. Rodgers said he has no contracts on any property, but is looking for opportunities.

Homes by Towne already has several other projects underway. Those projects include Waterfront at Main Street, a condominium project close to Lakewood Ranch Cinemas on Lakewood Ranch Main Street, and one of the first single-family home projects in Lakewood Ranch developer Schroeder-Manatee Ranch’s Waterside at Lakewood Ranch development. Waterside is a future 5,500-acre project with more than 5,100 homes south of the Lakewood Ranch Corporate Park, east of Interstate 75 in Sarasota County.