Clear Creek Tees Up Apartments, Course

John Tyson’s much anticipated development, Clear Creek Golf Club in Johnson, is making the final push toward completion. Tentatively scheduled to open in June, the championship course will be the main attraction for the surrounding Clear Creek gated community and a planned 180-acre commercial corridor.

Part of the commercial section will be Clear Creek Apartments, a less expensive way for avid golfers and working professionals to live near the exclusive 18-hole attraction.

Brandon Rogers, managing partner of Orion Realty and project manager for Clear Creek’s residential component, recently bought nine building permits for 120 apartment units in Phase I of the project.

The city of Johnson, unlike its neighbors, doesn’t assess permit fees based on actual valuations on their building permits and developers declined to disclose the valuation. However, Rogers estimates the total construction cost for Phase I to exceed $6 million.

The apartment complex will be on 48th Street, just north of James at the Mill restaurant. Phases I and II will eventually cover about 13 and 15 acres respectively and have a total of 274 units.

Champions Builders of North Little Rock is the general contractor. Tagert-Foster-Currence & Gray Architects of Little Rock is the architect, and CEI Engineering Associates Inc. of Bentonville is the engineer.

There will be 48 one-bedroom units that are 652 SF each and 72 two-bedroom units that are 1,002 SF. One-bedroom units will rent from $500 and two bedroom units will rent from $700.

“We’re marketing towards the professionals. It’s an excellent location,” Rogers said. “It’s close to Fayetteville. It’s close to Springdale, Rogers. It’s close to J.B. Hunt. It’s close to Tyson headquarters.

“It’s nestled in kind of a really unique setting that’s buffered by the freeway, but it’s still close to the freeway. It’s kind of down in a really nice valley that’s secluded by large trees that we’re going to leave,” Rogers said.

Apartments will feature nine-foot ceilings, crown moldings, ceiling fans, private balconies and walk-in closets. Some will have carports. The complex will also have a swimming pool and community room. First Capital Management of Little Rock will manage and lease the units.

The project is being financed by a Housing and Urban Development loan to Rogers and John Flake, who together purchased the land about a year and a half ago.

There are plans to break ground this summer on a 60,000-SF, four-story office building east of Interstate 540 and north of Great House Springs Road, but Rogers would not disclose further details about that project.

Exclusive Homes

Rogers said the 14 lots of Phase IV went up for sale at the end of January. Still within the gated community, these may be appealing to the less devoted golfer because they are not adjacent to the fairway and are less expensive.

Rogers said purchase of Phase IV lots requires an initiation fee of $1,500 and a monthly social membership fee of $75, which will allow residents access to the clubhouse. That’s a significant savings from the current 10-percent discounted $22,500 initiation membership fee for phases with homes just off the course.

Lots in Phases I, II, III and V are priced from $75,000 (from just under a half-acre) to $400,000 (a four-acre lot). Phase IV lots range from $75,000 to $101,500, said James Harkins, partner with Orion Realty.

In July, Orion had closed on 25 of the available 250 lots. As of Feb. 6, that number had reached 60, said Rogers.

Tim McMahon, of McMahon Bros. Custom Homes, Inc., has six contracts to build homes in Clear Creek, four of which are custom homes. He said he has four additional lots his company has purchased that are available for development.

McMahon Bros. broke ground on their first project in the subdivision in May 2003 and the family moved into the home on Feb. 10.

“I think it’s exceeding everyone’s expectations,” McMahon said of the subdivision.

A Killer Course

The 7,500-yard Clear Creek course was designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr., designer of The Links at Spanish Bay in Pebble Beach, Calif. and Wailea Golf Club in Maui, Hawaii.

The practice area was designed by golf analyst and CBS commentator, Peter Kostis. It will include putting, chipping and driving practice areas.

“It’s designed for very accurate practice sessions,” McSpadden said.

“It has a lot of target flags and target pins out there and when a person goes out there, they’ll be able to practice any shot that they’ll ever face on any course.”

Clear Creek will become the home of the University of Arkansas’ men’s and women’s golf teams. They will have locker rooms, offices and a conference room in the copper-clad Fred and Mary Smith UA Practice Center. The 5,000-SF facility, which backs up to the Clear Creek driving range, has six large garage-type doors that allow the teams and members to practice driving outside in virtually any weather.

“Rain, sleet or snow or just flat out cold,” McSpadden said. “I think our course is going to get recognition not only for the quality of golf course, but for the driving range.”

Kelley Hester, head coach of the Lady Razorbacks golf squad, said the team has been fortunate to get to use other local facilities, but it never had a facility of its own.

“This definitely brings us up to par, but the quality of the building and the quality of the course … I think that pushes us over the top,” Hester said. “To my knowledge, there’s not another facility like it.”

Hester came to UA from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, partially, she said, due to the promise of this facility and golf course.

The 18,000-SF clubhouse designed by UA professor Marlon Blackwell, who also designed the Razorbacks practice facility, will have a golf shop, cart facility, administrative offices and a swimming pool ready for use when the course opens this summer. Other clubhouse amenities such as the restaurant, banquet facilities and locker rooms, are not scheduled to open until March of 2005.