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Photo courtesy of Laurey Glenn.
The Highlands Community features outdoor amenities including walking trails and a lake.
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Photo courtesy of Laurey Glenn.
North Shelby County soon will be home to a living experience like no other in the area. The Highlands Community, off U.S. 11 near Chelsea High School, will offer mountain resort-style living just 20 miles from downtown Birmingham. The land is split between Pelham and Chelsea jurisdictions.
The concept for The Highlands Community was created by David Brogdon, president and CEO of The Brogdon Corporation. It is designed as a haven, a place of respite and relaxation, with all the conveniences of the city close by, he said.
“I fell in love with the land and thought it would be a great place for a community,” Brogdon said.
Brogdon purchased the property in 2013, and immediately set aside the first 200 acres into a land trust to ensure it was preserved. He has since added another 50 acres. A third of the property will never be harvested or developed and nearly every lot will touch the land trust area.
The master planned property will have 250 total lots on 725 acres. Construction on the first phase already has begun and will feature 35 mountain ridge homes on two-acre lots. These homes will open in early fall and will be zoned for Pelham schools. Others will be for Chelsea schools.
Award-winning architect Chris Reebals of Christopher Architects has designed the house plans and elevations to fit with the mountain lifestyle, with ideas to allow the buyer to have a home with great features modified to their desires, he said.
“We wanted to create concepts that felt like an organic outcropping of the beauty in the natural environment” he said. “This is a one-of-a-kind site and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be a part of something that is unparalleled in Birmingham and the surrounding communities.”
Brogdon said he wanted the homes to have a distinct look. About 20 house designs have been finalized with more to come.
“I want the houses to feel like upscale timber frame homes with posts and beams with timber frames and rocks for an old-world look,” he said. “This will allow people to come in and buy an upper-end house plan. It’s a cost effective way to have a customized home.”
Brogdon said he is excited to offer year-round resort style living with astonishing views in a gated community.
“Why go to North Carolina and spend two weeks, when you could live here 365 days a year with lakes and cool breezes on a mountaintop?” he said.
Brogdon’s long-term plan will include concierge services, including delivery and also maintenance needs, as well as a 3,000-seat amphitheater with a natural-rock stage. There will be pedestrian tunnels under the roads for hikers and golf carts. Other features of the community are streets and mailboxes lit by gas lanterns, AT&T Gigabit fiber internet and underground utilities.
The poolside owner’s clubhouse will feature a glass treehouse hanging over the mountain with a 270- degree view and a two-tiered gravity-edge resort pool. A timber-framed lakeside pavilion with a 34-foot timber-frame moss-rock fireplace already has been built with imported white virgin pine from Maine.
Tommy Brigham, CEO of ARC Realty, has a five-person team of high-producing, high-quality real estate agents working on-site on a rotation basis assisting in selling the homes in The Highlands Community. He has been in the real estate business since 1974 and said the concept, from the development standpoint, is unheard of.
“David is developing a community unlike anything ever developed in metro Birmingham,” he said. “It will be a paradise kind of experience behind gates. It’s a perpetual undisturbed park not far from the city.”
Brigham says the development will provide a variety of price points and offerings as the 700 acres are developed over the next few years.
“Putting the amenities up front is not something many local developers do,” Brigham said. “The club house, pool, lakes and trails are important to the consumer. They get something of value immediately.”
Brogdon said the area can be for a permanent home, or home away from home.
“Not only do we anticipate folks moving there permanently, but there is also an emerging market for those who want a second home getaway less than 20 miles outside Birmingham,” he said.
To schedule a tour:
ARC Realty: 969-8910, arcrealtyco.com
David Brogdon: 991-6500, thebrogdongroup.com
The Highlands Community: facebook.com/thehighlandscommunity or thehighlandscommunity.com
