Missouri town bursts forth

ROBERT STEUTEVILLE

New Town has made the fastest progress from initial design of any traditional neighborhood development (TND) to date. The first charrette was held in early 2003. As of mid-May — a little over two years later — some 300 houses were going up, a construction area on the scale of Seaside, according to developer Greg Whittaker.

The first 12 families moved in during April, about 25 more in May, and 30 more were expected in June. Whittaker expects about 20 to 30 closings per month in the foreseeable future. About 450 houses had been sold as of May. When complete, New Town will have 4,900 residential units and a half dozen neighborhood and town centers on a 740-acre prairie site that includes a substantial amount of water. The neighborhoods consist of tight grids organized around a series of man-made lakes and canals.

The early sale of more than 30 live-work units out of 70 total in the first village center was a surprise. “We thought that it would take a couple of years to sell the live-work units and that the housing would have to be established to create a market for this building type,” Whittaker says. “We expected only two or three live-work sales by now.”

The units are two and three stories tall, with commercial areas on the first floor ranging from 600 to 2,000 square feet. The owners are planning to open a wide variety of businesses, including a beauty salon, a wine bar, a pizza shop, a microbrewery, a bookstore, and an insurance office, Whittaker reports. “We are getting every combination of buyer,” he says. “Some will be living above their business, some will be renting out the residential and working in the commercial, some will be renting out the commercial and living in the residential, and some will be renting out both.” Whittaker attributes the popularity of these properties to a lack of any similar product available in the St. Louis area, the perceived appeal of New Town in general, and the fact that “people think they are a good investment.”

Even prior to the first residents moving in, New Town was proving to be a draw. “On a nice Sunday we were getting people pushing strollers, people walking dogs, kids, people on bicycles, and people just hanging out,” he says. “We have done a lot of developments, and we have seen nothing like this.” He explains, “There are not too many nice places in St. Charles for people to just hang out.” Whittaker Homes, which constructs about 600 units annually, bills itself as the largest builder in Missouri. Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company designed New Town.

INVITING NONRESIDENTS

Whittaker wants to attract as many people as possible from outside the community to visit New Town regularly. The first village center includes a 47,000 sq. ft. YMCA, which broke ground in the spring of 2005 and is scheduled to be open in the summer of 2006. The center also includes an amphitheater, which will feature free concerts, plays, and recitals. The first performance this summer is Shakespeare in the Park, sponsored by the City of St. Charles and produced by a local nonprofit.

Whittaker Homes is building and will operate a neighborhood grocery store and a 6,000 sq. ft. chapel to be rented out for weddings, receptions, church services, and a Montessori school. “We want this to be the place to be married in the St. Charles area,” Whittaker says. In addition to the developer-owned chapel, the town’s first church — the St. Charles Christian Church — broke ground recently. New Town includes half a dozen sites for churches — land that is being sold to congregations at market rate.

Both the YMCA and the church will share parking in the village center, which has 1,200 spaces in lots and on the street. This sharing enables the institutions to locate on unusually small lots. The YMCA lot is 18,000 square feet — yielding a floor-area ratio of 2.6, a number more typical of the downtown of a sizable city than a greenfield site. The church is locating on a 20,000 sq. ft. site — a fraction of the size of a standard suburban church lot.

Although many TNDs are expensive, especially with the nationwide escalation in real estate prices, the least expensive New Town units (four-plex townhouses) start at $120,900. Courtyard units sold for as low as $108,000 in the first phase. The price range in New Town is extremely wide — the most expensive custom houses are selling for up to a million dollars. “People are ready for more of a town feeling — it’s the right time, the right place, and the right price,” Whittaker says.

New Town has grown physically since the original charrette, when 3,500 units were planned on 630 acres. Whittaker Homes got zoning approval for an additional 1,400 units on 109 adjacent acres. The two plans fit together with a continuous street grid, Whittaker says. “Not one person showed up to voice opposition [to the addition],” he says. “That’s very unusual.”