Mr Williamsburg, Blogging on Life and Real Estate in Williamsburg and Hampton Roads Virginia

YORK – –>— A Bermuda-style and golf-oriented resort under construction next to the Williamsburg Country Club is set to welcome its first guests in June — more than three years after York County officials approved the project.
The development will eventually include 784 condolike time-share units in the Parkside Resort, in addition to more than 40 stand-alone buildings — with shared ownership — in the Parkside Golf Villas. The project is being constructed in a highly visible 64-acre area along Merrimac Trail that is adjacent to the Williamsburg Country Club and the Interstate 64 interchange that serves as the entrance to Busch Gardens.
Dan Carter, vice president of sales and marketing for Parkside Resort, said the Landmark Resort Properties of Virginia development’s amenities — including guaranteed when-in-residence country club privileges for golf villa owners and a limited number of based-on-availability passes for time-share patrons — would appeal to baby boomers and avid golfers.
Carter said a key feature is the resort’s proximity to Busch Gardens. “You can sit in the villas and look out the back over a huge lake and the 17th green. With the front view, you are looking at the Griffon and Apollo’s Chariot. It’s incredible,” he said.
A first phase of construction to include 36 time-share units and a pool, with a water-jet propelled current, will be ready for guests in June. A clubhouse with restaurant, day spa and adults-only billiards and reading rooms is slated to open in September. Susan McGowan, a Registry Collection spokeswoman, said the Parkside Golf Villas are slated to become the first Virginia listing in the luxury resort network that includes properties throughout the United States and such foreign locales as Spain’s Canary Islands and Tuscany, Italy.The time-share portion of the Parkside development is affiliated with Group RCI, where it is listed as a Gold Crown Resort based on proposed amenities and service standards, according to the vacation exchange network’s Web site.
The York County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a rezoning in April 2005 to allow the project. Developers were required to perform roadway improvements on Merrimac Trail — also known as Route 143 — and be served by sanitary sewer and public water connections as conditions of approval.As part of the deal with the Williamsburg Country Club, Parkside developers constructed about $1 million in site enhancements there, including parking lot refurbishments and construction of a new maintenance building to conform to Parkside design elements, Carter said.The project cost at least $135 million. The figure could grow substantially if proposed future construction, which includes additional outdoor pools and an indoor water park, takes place, Carter said.Architecture throughout the resort will have a distinct Caribbean flavor with vivid pastel colors modeled after the company’s Bermuda Bay resort design.
The two-story Parkside Golf Villas will measure at least 1,800 square feet and cost between $75,000 and $500,000, Carter said. Pricing for the Parkside Resort time-share units, which have one to three bedrooms, will begin at about $9,000, he said.”The developer’s concept is that they really wanted to be totally different than any other project in Williamsburg,” Carter said. “Our goal is to be the No. 1 product in this Williamsburg market.”