Estate plans

NOVA developer envisions multimillion-dollar homes near Delaplane

By Don Del Rosso - Staff Writer

They expect well-heeled professionals - doctors, lawyers and corporate executives - to snatch up the pricey home lots. Real estate investors and developers Joe Camarda of Tysons Corner and Bruce Arinaga of Rockville, Md., two weeks ago paid $16.3 million for Flint Hill farm between Rectortown and Delaplane.

They plan to subdivide the 856-acre property at Maidstone and Lost Corner roads into 20 home sites. Specifically, they want:

Three 50-acre lots, four 100-acre lots, an 85-acre lot and a 145-acre lot. They will range from $1.5 million to $3 million apiece, Mr. Camarda said.

11 three- to five-acre lots. They will cost up to $525,000 apiece, he said. Existing "village" zoning allows for the smaller home sites, which would be laid out in five- and six-lot clusters.

The developers also will sell the 9,500-square-foot, main house, with a tenant house, carriage house, smoke house and log cabin on about 16 acres. That should fetch about $5 million, Mr. Camarda said in a phone interview.

"It's a gorgeous piece of land," Mr. Camarda said of Flint Hill, which offers stunning panoramic views of the northern Piedmont. "And we just felt the opportunity was there to develop it.

"It seems to us there's a large demand for that kind of estate property."

Mr. Camarda, who developed a small rural subdivision in northern Fauquier in the 1980s, thinks buyers will be in their late 30s to early 50s.

"It's going to be people from out of the area, perhaps people who want to move out of Reston, Vienna, Great Falls and don't need to go into the office every day . . . . It's a lifestyle issue."

The property will be renamed Chattins Run Farm, after a small creek that runs through it.

The land will be developed "by right," which means Mr. Camarda and his partner will adhere to existing zoning limitations, requiring only administrative approval by the county planning staff.

They will begin marketing lots this fall.

Hume homebuilder Gretchen Yahn, who brought the property to the developers' attention, serves as Chattins Run project manager.

Ms. Yahn, who builds luxury custom homes, plans to buy a 50-acre lot from the developers and build a speculative home.

Homes will feature natural exterior materials - stone, stucco and brick, for example, she said.

"It'll be very Cotswoldsy," said Ms. Yahn, referring to a compact region in southwestern England famous for its historically and culturally rich towns and villages.

Homes on smaller lots might measure 3,800 to 4,200 square feet, she said. Excluding land, they would cost $1.2 million to $1.8 million.

Homes on big lots would range from 5,400 to 6,200 square feet and cost $2.2 million and up, Ms. Yahn said.

"Our goal is not to be providing for 30,000-square-feet homes."

"We're targeting very hard into the Florida, Connecticut, New York, California, Texas areas," said Ms. Yahn, who lives in a 4,440-square-foot home she built on 55 acres near Hume.

There will be no "McMansions" on mountaintops, Ms. Yahn said last Thursday during a two-hour tour of the sprawling, hilly farm.

"The way we're siting the lots, (homes will) not be looking at one another at all."

Exterior and interior "view sheds" will remain largely undisturbed, said Ms. Yahn, who hopes to build homes for those who buy lots from the developers.

The farm's topography and woodland would be used to hide homes, she said.

None of the new lots can be resubdivided, Ms. Yahn stressed.

Much of Flint Hill From fronts Maidstone Road. Only one planned home would be visible from the road, she said.

The Piedmont Environmental Council hoped to find a buyer who would put Flint Hill under a conservation easement, extinguishing all or most of the property's development rights, Vice President Doug Larson said.

That would be the "ideal" owner, Mr. Larson said.

But when told of the developers' plan, he said: "The kind of things they're saying are encouraging. We would certainly look forward to that sensitive siting."

A portion of the main house dates to 1795, according to "A Pride of Place: Rural Residences of Fauquier County, Virginia."

That year Benjamin Rust, who rented the land from George Washington, built a "single-cell," stone house.

A two-story addition was completed in 1832.

During the Civil War owner John Will Rawlings named the farm Rawlingsdale.

During the war, Confederate soldiers made extensive use of the house.

"So frequent were the Federal raids that the Rawlings family dared not have on a light at night, lest they be suspected of giving signals to" Col. John S. Mosby's troops, according to "Fauquier County, Virginia, 1759-1959."

The main house underwent major renovations in the 1940s.

Architect Thomas S. Waterman added two, 1-1/2 wings to the home.

"Although aspects of the historic structure survive, Flint Hill is primarily a product of the 20th century, "Pride of Place" concluded.

In April 2002, Gerald Vento, a former Sprint executive paid $9.6 million for Flint Hill and almost 24 additional acres, according to county records.

Mr. Vento put lots of money into the home and the land, adding thousands of feet of board fence and an indoor riding rink, Ms. Yahn said.

The cream-colored, stucco home features three bedrooms, four full- and three half bathrooms, four fireplaces, an elevator and a large gourmet kitchen equipped with, dark wood cabinets lined with bamboo and an array of Viking and Sub Zero appliances.

Contractor Perry Botto renovated the place and added the kitchen and family room.

"We built a house within a house," said Mr. Botto, standing in the vacant family room. "We saved as much as we could. That was the main concern of Mr. Vento at the time."

The developers moved quickly on the property, beginning negotiations with Mr. Vento in January.

Ms. Yahn visited county Supervisor Harry Atherton (Marshall District) about three weeks ago to talk about the project.

Mr. Atherton likened the meeting to a "courtesy" call.

"Almost all they want to do (with the farm) will not see the board of supervisors," he said.

A subdivision plat for Chattins Run eventually will appear on the board's meeting agenda.

But the supervisors rarely comment on plats, which the planning staff reviews for technical compliance and recommends for approval.

The Chattins Run concept represents "a substantial and worrisome change in the high-end real estate market," Mr. Atherton said. "It's worrisome, because it eventually suggests there's going to be a lot more houses" in rural areas.

He remains uncertain whether Flint Hill's development fate represents a "trend" in the making.

Or whether "it could be just Gretchen, because she's a high-end builder and she's looking for pieces of land."

Ms. Yahn believes more and more big farms will be purchased for subdivision.

Flint Hill's $16.3 million purchase price will demonstrate for the other landowners the substantial development value of their farms, she said.

Mr. Atherton expressed doubts about Chattins Run's market viability, Ms. Yahn said.

"And I was like, 'Harry, where you been!' "

The developers naturally share her enthusiasm.

But what if they misread the market.

Mr. Camarda laughed.

"I hope I'm not the greatest fool . . . . It's a bunch of money. Time will tell."

Meanwhile, Mr. Camarda and his partner expect to buy another big northern Fauquier farm in July.