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The Greenville News, February 9, 2007
by
Rudolph Bell
Professional
cyclist George Hincapie of Greenville says he expects athletes from
around the country and foreign countries to buy property at a high-end
residential development and performance training center that he and
partners plan in northern Greenville County.
Hincapie
and Greenville developer Ron Vergnolle said Thursday they are planning
the 300-acre development -- called Pla d'Adet -- along Wood Hayes Road
off Old U.S. 25. They said it would include a 35,000-square-foot
training center with a weight room, indoor pool, aerobic studio, indoor
cycling studio, spa, dry sauna and media center.
It
would include a hotel, conference center, bicycle shop, restaurant and
two four-mile tracks outside, one for cycling and the other for
mountain biking and trail running.
The
development would also include 20 1,800-square-foot chalets that will
be commonly owned and available to property owners for their guests.
Hincapie and Vergnolle said they hope to sell 85 two-acre lots in the
development priced between $500,000 and $1.2 million each.
The
name Pla d'Adet (pronounced PLAH-da-day) is taken from the place in the
Pyrenees mountains of southwest France where Hincapie won one stage of
the famed Tour de France race in 2005.
The
Pla d'Adet property is near the "Bakery Run," a route popular with
Hincapie and other cyclists that runs along Old U.S. 25 through the
29,000-acre property preserved to protect the North Saluda Reservoir as
a water supply. The route ends at a bakery in Saluda, N.C.
Vergnolle,
president of PHC Communities LLC, a residential development company,
said he's close to meeting a pre-sales goal necessary for the
development to be feasible. "We believe we'll be attracting
buyers in large part from the Southeast, but we know of at least 30
potential buyers we've identified as far away as New York."
"I
believe that this community is going to put Greenville in the focus of
cycling nationally in the country," Vergnolle said. The development is
designed to appeal to athletes involved in "performance training" --
cyclists, triathletes and marathon runners -- although anyone can buy
property.
Hincapie
has helped legendary cyclist Lance Armstrong win the Tour de France
seven times as part of the Discovery Channel and U.S. Postal Service
pro cycling teams. He's also a four-time Olympian.
Caliber
Engineering Consultants was retained to provide civil/site and
environmental engineering for the Pla d'Adet development. An
on-site wastewater system will be installed on each
residential lot providing uniform, decentralized disposal of
septic tank effluent.
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