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As eco-friendly luxurious properties fetch hefty costs from prosperous patrons, Washington County might quickly lure ones making ready for Armageddon.
A improvement group plans to interrupt floor in late spring on the primary of fifty sustainably designed properties that provide facilities like chef-grade kitchen home equipment, housekeeping companies, and bathe filters that infuse water with vitamin C. Homeowners will even have entry to a typical lodge with a industrial kitchen and bar, a non-public seashore and sauna, a meditation middle, recreation services and extra. Residence costs will vary to over $1 million.
However the Merriwood Sustainable Group, on 1,000 acres alongside Howard Lake in Robbinston, can be supposed to be a haven from COVID-19, the results of local weather change and doomsday normally.
There shall be a 100-acre natural farm that “can present for the total dietary wants of the neighborhood,” based on a information launch. A primary-aid clinic shall be onsite. Web service shall be obtainable by a devoted fiber-optic line and satellite tv for pc backup system. Unbiased energy technology, using photo voltaic and maybe wind applied sciences, will enable Merriwood to go off-grid if mandatory.
Randall Solomon, who lives in New Jersey and is launching Merriwood with three companions, stated it’ll cater to patrons who need an environmentally sustainable dwelling for vacationing or year-round use — but additionally desire a “plan B” if occasions get robust.
“I believe it is going to be a combo,” he advised Mainebiz Friday in a cellphone interview. A purchaser enthusiastic about sustainability “is by definition additionally going to be occupied with tendencies towards unsustainability.”
Solomon ought to know. He is the founder and government director of Sustainable Jersey, a nonprofit that guides municipalities in turning into extra sustainable, and speaks steadily on improvement, power and land use coverage. He launched the event group, Sustainable Group Companions LLC, final month.
Members of the staff embrace Blanche Garcia, an inside designer who’s appeared on the cable community HGTV; Ryan Francis, proprietor and CEO of Maine Development Group, in Holden; and Ben Falk, a sustainable agriculture professional. A Portland-based agency, Briburn, is serving as architects.
The group is self-funding the beginning of the neighborhood and plans for it to be operated as an owners affiliation. To this point, Solomon stated, six of the 50 tons have been reserved for future patrons, together with one for himself and his household. Reservations are open for the general public beginning Jan 15, and require a $25,000 refundable deposit.
As soon as on the checklist, potential patrons may have a selection of three dwelling fashions, starting from the 924-square-foot Juniper to the two,916-square-foot Ironwood, every that includes passive photo voltaic design and post-consumer supplies. Costs vary from $577,000 to $1.05 million, and patrons will even must pay a $1 million price on prime of that to cowl widespread bills.
To potential patrons, a slickly designed website markets the placement as “off the crushed path however … nonetheless a vacationer vacation spot with enticing cities and tourism facilities. It’s extremely accessible when occasions are good, however distant sufficient to be safe.”
He contrasts potential Merriwood residents with “excessive preppers” who’re making ready for catastrophe by taking to properties in underground bunkers and missile silos. “These are the form of locations you go to when there is a zombie apocalypse,” he stated.
So do not anticipate concrete fortresses. With the event of Merriwood, the realm “isn’t going to really feel a lot completely different,” he stated.
Nonetheless, the properties and costs could also be uncommon in Robbinston, a city of 600 simply south of Calais. However Solomon feels Merriwood shall be a welcome asset.
Courtesy / Sustainable Group Companions
This web site plan exhibits a number of the Merriwood improvement to be inbuilt Robbinston.
The land was within the strategy of being subdivided earlier than he and his companions purchased it for an undisclosed value. Solely the Merriwood lodge will really border the water, so the neighborhood’s 1.5-mile lakefront shall be comparatively undisturbed, he stated.
“We’re not including density or any of the annoying components” of improvement, Solomon stated.
And he is hoping Mainers will present the small workforce essential to run the farm and supply companies to residents.
“We wish to be a very good neighbor,” he stated. “We’re coming in right here with a sense of gratitude.”
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