York County development reflects robust market for vacation homes
Photo/ Cape Arundel Cottages
Phase I of the $70 million Cape Arundel Cottages development at 1976 Portland Road/Route 1, in Arundel is complete, with new residents moving in. Phase II construction is underway.
ARUNDEL — Massachusetts developer Joe Paolini sees a still-growing market for seasonal homes in southern Maine.
Phase I of a new $70 million cottage community development, Cape Arundel Cottages, at 1976 Portland Road/Route 1, Arundel, is complete and residents are moving in. Phase II is currently underway.
Phase I comprises 30 two-bedroom cottages, plus a 6,000-square-foot community center and clubhouse offering recreation and entertainment amenities.
By the time the development is completed in 2020, it will have 259 seasonal cottages on 294 acres.
“We’ve had great activity here,” Paolini told Mainebiz. “We just sold three this past Sunday.” That was during a barbecue, which drew close to 100 prospective customers.
Vacation home sales returning to pre-recession levels
According to the National Association of Realtors, vacation home sales nationwide cooled off in 2015 after a record-setting 2014. Last year, 920,000 vacation homes changed hands, down 18.5% from 1.13 million in 2014, the best year since 2006.
Paolini, from Framingham, Mass., came to the project after an earlier career in the high-tech industry working for Raytheon, Data General and Prime Computer performing facility planning and acquisition throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, Ireland and Canada. For the past three decades, he has also developed commercial and residential properties in Massachusetts.
Cape Arundel is his first entry into Maine.
“A contractor friend told me this property was available,” he said. “I was looking for additional development projects and I knew the area. I have family in Portsmouth, N.H., and we used to come to Kennebunkport and the area for many years. I looked at the land and it was so beautiful.”
The property posed challenges because it includes environmentally sensitive areas, such as ledges and vernal pools. Paolini and his team worked out a 67-acre protected easement. And in developing the rest of the property, the team took care to maintain as much of the existing vegetation, woodlands and natural rock as possible.
Marketing is via print ads and social media that mainly target Maine and Boston.
“There’s a big market coming up from Boston,” said Paolini.
More than half of the first 30 units have been sold, with prices starting at $225,000 and going up to $350,000. Units range from 866 square feet to 1,350 square feet. Their cottage personality includes glass walls, classic clapboard exteriors, open floor plans and stone walkways.
As an eight-month resort, May 1 through Dec. 31, it’s drawing interest from snowbirds desiring either a primary home for most of the year and going to warmer locales in the winter or those wanting to create a secondary home, said Paolini. Many customers are those who have friends and families locally. Purchasers are coming from New England, New York, California and the United Kingdom.
While many vacation homes are about privacy and exclusivity, Paolini said this development captures a market that’s looking for a sense of community. Many people, as kids, once spent vacations at campsites or RV parks with their families, made friends for life and had a wonderful time, he said. Now they’ve grown up and have their own families, or perhaps they’re retired and they want to recapture that sense of community and fun. So the development is set up in village clusters where people can get to know each other and enjoy amenities, easily access the oceanfront and go into town.
Given his years in development, Paolini said he’s seeing signs of prosperity that make it possible for people to own a second home.
“I see it here, when we have over 100 people sometimes, on the weekends, who come to visit the site,” he said. “Not everyone can afford it or wants to live here. But I believe there are 259 buyers out there, even if the economy goes down.”
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