April 4, 2007: The Fast and the Furious Join the Country-Club Set
By THADDEUS HERRICK
WallStreet Journal, Page B1

KAUFMAN COUNTY, Texas -- Bill Georgas is building a gated community on ranch land here, but where a golf course might have gone, he's constructing an automobile race track.

"Instead of the 18th green," he says, "you'll be looking at four milesof asphalt."

Set upon almost 1,600 acres about 40 miles east of Dallas, Racers Ranchwill feature an 8,000-square-foot clubhouse where homeowners will beable to enjoy a burger and a beer while watching their neighbors stretchthe limits of their Ferraris, Porsches and Corvettes, Mr. Georgas says.

Even as cities are luring people back to downtown neighborhoods withtheir melting-pot appeal, suburban and exurban "lifestyle communities"are emerging with ever narrower niches.

While private race tracks like Autobahn Country Club in Illinois plan toadd condos, Texas developers want to open one with five-acre home sites.

Their market: aging baby boomers who increasingly find themselves withthe time and money to pursue a singular passion, such as cars, horses oraviation.

These specialized communities are popping up across the U.S. Near Ocala,Fla., where John Travolta resides along with his Boeing 707, pilot TerryJones-Thayer is developing Jumbolair Aviation Estates, the country'slargest private airstrip. In Sheperdstown, W.Va., Peter Corum is building The Crofts, an equestrian-estate community with stables, trails and lots up to 11 acres. And in suburban Dallas, Wellstone CommunitiesLLC and Texas aerobics guru Dr. Kenneth Cooper are developing one of thenation's first fitness villages, a 191-acre project where residents willbe assigned personal trainers, doctors and dieticians.

As the real-estate market boomed in recent years, developers have triedto lure home buyers with branded communities with mixed success. A homein a John Deere signature community, for example, offers a garage fullof John Deere gear, including a lawn tractor and two years of freemaintenance. In Enterprise, Ala., country music singer Kix Brooks of thegroup Brooks and Dunn teamed up with Ronnie Gilley Properties Inc. todevelop Brookwood, a residential community where homebuyers are offeredguitars signed by Mr. Brooks.

Niche developments, like Racers Ranch, take the idea of associating abrand with a neighborhood a step further, creating country-clubcommunities around a specific pastime. The premise is risky, because itnarrows the pool of potential buyers and pushes up prices. The upshot isthat projects can take years to complete. For example, Ms. Jones-Thayerof Jumbolair Aviation Estates says 22 of 100 lots have been sold sinceher project began in 2001, primarily to jet-setting executives andaviation enthusiasts. The lots, which are between 2.5 and 4.5 acres,sell for $350,000 to $675,000 and dues run another $4,000 a year. So faronly five homes are finished.

Rendering of suburban Dallas fitness community; residents will beassigned trainers and dieticians. Still, developers of such communities have successfully tapped into theInternet, which has allowed marketers to bring like-minded peopletogether, not unlike electronic dating services.John B. Lowery,president of Wellstone, says developers are, more importantly, mining ademographic that, in addition to having time and money, maintains ayouthful mindset. "These are people who grew up with the RollingStones," says Mr. Lowery. "They're not going to be content to playshuffle board."

There will be few excuses to slow down at Mr. Lowery's $800 millionfitness development, known as Cooper Life at Craig Ranch, which isemerging on what was once agricultural land some 30 miles north ofDallas in McKinney, Texas. The project, which is under construction,will offer a total of 1,500 cottages, townhomes and mid-risecondominiums for $400,000 to $1 million. Already built are a gleaming75,000 square-foot fitness center, Olympic-size pool and tennis courts.Use of the facilities costs $1,200 a month, per household, and includesconcierge service.

"Our objective is to create a community where health care is an easychoice," says Dr. Cooper's son Tyler Cooper, who is helping to overseethe project.

Mr. Georgas and his partner, Dan Gage, both of whom previously worked intelecommunications, hatched the idea for Racers Ranch several years agowhile driving their Porsches at a road course near Fort Worth. In theirdowntime, they found themselves either wilting from the heat or bundlingup against the cold. "We thought, 'If we had a clubhouse, we could behaving a drink, relaxing right now," says Mr. Georgas.

In 2005 they teamed with a group of investors to pay $8 million for aworking cattle farm among rolling hills and wooded creeks of KaufmanCounty, setting aside the bulk of it for conservation in return for atax break. Locals were initially alarmed at news of the track,dispatching some 20 calls to county officials with questions andconcerns.

But the relatively remote site of the track and its private status hasallayed fears. Mr. Georgas and Mr. Gage say they intend to mute thenoise of the cars with a berm as high as 18 feet that they expect toconstruct with the earth that is removed to build the track.

U.S. motor-sport road courses are becoming increasingly popular placesfor amateurs to drive their cars -- and live. The Autobahn Country Clubin Joliet, Il., has plans to build 40 condominiums. But the residentialnature of Racers Ranch coupled with its secluded, rural setting issomething of a novelty. Mr. Georgas and Mr. Gage are looking to sell 40five-acre lots for $275,000, a price that also includes full use of theclubhouse, track, two pit areas and day-use garage. So far he has only14 commitments. "We've got a lot of people sitting on the fence," saysMr. Gage."

Mr. Georgas, 45, and Mr. Gage, 39, initially planned to startconstruction when they had commitments from 20 buyers. But last monththey said they have acquired a loan that will allow them to startconstruction of a clubhouse and a 40-foot-wide track that will looparound pastures, through thickets and over creek beds. With thoseamenities in place, they believe their concept will catch on.

Like a golf community, Racers Ranch aims to attract members as well asresidents. Lou Gigliotti, a long-time Dallas area professional race-cardriver and Corvette aficionado, is among those who have reserved a lot.He says the chief selling point of Racers Ranch is that many of the carsproduced today are built to reach speeds drivers can never experience --if they're obeying the law. The track's one half mile straight-away willallow drivers to reach speeds as high as 150 miles an hour, about thesame as racers on professional courses such as upstate New York'sWatkins Glen International. "To hot rod it, you've got to have a placelike Racers Ranch," says Mr. Gigliotti.

That means about double the insurance rates of country-club golfcommunities and a safety program, whereby Mr. Georgas and Mr. Gage saythey will determine the ability of the drivers who use their track andcertify their progress before they are permitted to operate at highspeeds. But the track will be designed without walls in all but the pitareas, allowing out-of-control cars to roll off the course and reducingthe chance for crashes and injuries.

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