This week the Mirror had a chance to sit down and chat with Matt Hagler and Bobby Masters of Preserve Communities to discuss the future of Bay Creek.
For several years, the community has been languishing under the ownership of Sinclair Broadcasting, whose business is actually radio and television, not real estate management. The sport of golf is in a deep decline, where more courses are closing than new ones opening.
“We don’t see a future where the main focus is just a golfing community,” said Bobby Masters.
Sinclair was bleeding out over $3 million dollars a year, yet the maintenance of both courses was still suffering. One of the first orders of business is to shorten the course by eliminating nine holes of the Nicklaus course. According to Matt Hagler, this will help alleviate some of the costs, but more importantly, it will open up more of the beachfront for development of other activities.
World-class golf at Bay Creek will always be a big part the picture, but other life-style programming such as trails and hiking, biking, and a much more active beach scene that will leverage and interact with Bay on a much more intimate level are all part of the design.
The area near the coves will be completely re-imagined. So far, they have modeled a gorgeous beach club that will offer indoor and outdoor dining, with open air Havana doors that can be opened on more temperate days. “We call it Shanty chic,” said Bobby Masters. “We really love the Shanty, so we want to incorporate a lot of that feel.” The model is a work in progress that the group is still very actively refining. Matt Hagler told the Mirror that due to his background in food and hospitality, he is excited to bring new and interesting styles of cuisine to the club.
According to Matt Hagler, one of the main goals is to diversify the population, hopefully attracting a more multi-generational set of clientele. Hagler told the Mirror that they want to leverage the coves of the beach as places to offer child friendly programming, an adult section, as well as being a hub for water based activities such as kayaking and canoeing. As and event destination, and with more variety in programming offerings, the hope is to attract younger families, as well as destination vacationers.
“The natural beauty of the Eastern Shore and Cape Charles is something we want to preserve and tie altogether,” Hagler said. “But what we really want, is that when the family and grand kids are asked about where they want to go for vacation, Bay Creek will be the first choice because, ‘Nana lives in the coolest place’.”
The Mirror asked about the issue of workforce development.
Hagler told the Mirror, “We’ve had that challenge before in other places like southern Georgia…I come from a hospitality background, so training and world-class customer service is something we take seriously. The good thing is we already a great staff that are eager to learn and take their careers to the next level.” Building out and recruiting additional staff is on the upcoming agenda.
Another top priority is to pave and complete a golf cart path from Bay Creek into town. The path will run along the connector road, past the Rosenwald School and finally connect at Peach Street. “This is something that should have happened earlier, but it is something we want to get done right away, ” Masters said.
When asked about the history of Bay Creek, mainly the Annexation Agreement between the town and county, Masters told the Mirror that they did due diligence before purchasing the property. Preserve plans to build out as many remaining lots as possible, and is actively working the contractors to get that done. “We understand this is part of our partnership with the town, and as neighbors…when the wastewater plant needs expansion, we will be part of it,” Masters said.
Preserve is partnering with IMI Worldwide Properties on the upcoming projects, and will include several million dollars for advertising and promotion. There are also rumors that the gates will be coming down–a kind of symbolic gesture of making Bay Creek less of a gated community and more connected to historic Cape Charles.
The Mirror told the group, “This is really exciting, after several years of watching Bay Creek go downhill, this re-thinking and re-structuring is a breath of fresh air. It reminds me of how excited we were when Bay Creek opened. Good luck.”
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Since everyone loves a juicy “Rumor/Hearsay” my understanding is the whole town of Cape Charles is becoming part of BayCreek. After the gates are removed from the two current locations they plan to put a single gate at Stone rd and Rt 13. The new wall will be located West of Rt 13, North to Cherrystone creek and South to Plantation Creek with just one gate. The armed guards will search every car entering the new town.
After the town is incorporated into BayCreek, everyone will start to pay a monthly HOA fee…I heard it will be somewhere around $1287. This fee will be paid to improve infrastructure on the roads to the new 500 unit 100 story hotel going up in the Bayside Village neighborhood. I also heard they will be turning the 27 remaining golf holes into a mini golf area with a water park and NASCAR track. Because of all the extra land space freed up from the existing golf course the plans are to add a Wal-Mart and an Amazon warehouse distribution center… to bring high paying jobs to The Cape. All of the new plans will be happening on the South side of BayCreek since the new developer has nothing to do with The Marina Villages; they own nothing in those neighborhoods . To enter this new exciting developing area you will have to purchase a membership on top of the new Town of BayCreek’s HOA fee. I heard that membership will be somewhere around $396 a month.
You have to love a good rumor!
Note: 🙂
Stepping over the rumor parody above, I think Cape Charles is very fortunate to have an experienced and proven real estate development firm step in at this time
Look up Preserve Communities and see what they have accomplished. Builders, contractors and service employment should ramp up over the next few years.
Taking down the gate, paving the golf cart trail and removing 9 holes of golf to enhance waterfront activities are smart first moves on their part.
This maybe the first time Bay Creek has had a proven company take the reins and finally do this the right way.
The rumor of the gates coming down is just that, a rumor. That rumor is coming from the Mirror which has a track record of hating everything Bay Creek. As a resident of Bay Creek we were told that the gates are staying. That subject was covered in the introduction webinar that the new developer put on last week.
Pretty sure the rumor about the gate was put there so when it doesn’t happen the Mirror can use that to divide the town even more.
My understanding is that the HOA controls any decision about the gates, not the developer. This is , especially true in the Marina Villages where all property is owned by private individuals and was nothing was purchased by the new developer.
I would be more than happy to have the gates removed if my HOA fees would end. The town could pick up the maintenance expenses of the streets, landscaping and beach. I am sure the town residents would love to have their taxes raised to cover those expenses.
Printing rumors is BS and not news…very irresponsible Wayne.
Note: Marina Villages has not been part of Bay Creek for several years now. And, most residents know the gates are worthless, and take about 5 seconds to break the code. Several members of the HOA told the Mirror that they want the gates to come down, and they are going to push to make that happen. We were also told by Bay Creek homeowners that many folks are not happy with the new ownership, and you just confirmed that.
I am thrilled with the new developer…again you are printing assumptions and rumors as news.
You say
the Marina Villages are not part of BayCreek, they are… they are just not owned by the new developer. Our HOA fees are paid to BayCreek which gives us access to BayCreek amenities. Yes, the the new developer will not be building anything in the Marina Villages because it is complete in the eyes of a developer.
As I said before, take down the gates, turn the Marina Villages into the town…but do away with our HOA fees and have the town pay for maintenance…which means taxes will go up.
Note: Oy-vey. “they are just not owned by the new developer”, so there’s that.
You must not be a golfer. That layout is one of the finest you will see in Va.
I don’t know folks. I see confidence in the way the plans are being presented, and new blood and bigger $ always infuses enthusiasm, but I fear the dismantling of some of the cash cow flow. I fully understand that business needs to be ready to follow trends. Business plans that are deliberately contrary to established successful norms ? Okay, millennials are not the biggest players of golf, and oversaturating the market and having too many golf courses has caused some to close. The naysayers are on board with “more golf courses are closing than are being built”. Well, build a pizzeria next to a 50 year running successful pizzeria and you may have made a mistake. Are there too many courses. 1% closed last year after a huge boon. Only 1%. Doesn’t look like a trend to me. Inside the numbers ? Jack Nicklaus designed golf courses only fail if they are built where there is not enough access. Or perceived lack of access. In other words, build it and they will come. My opinion ? Find a way to attract more people w/o destroying the course. A Tiki Bar attracts more $ ? This isn’t adding up to me, but I am not the money guy, nor do I have the business background they have. I truly wish them good luck. I would think there is a way w/o destroying the course,, but it’s not my $. Tear down the gate ? I don’t know. Security is popular in money areas. Will security be maintained ? The golf cart highway allows more golf carts access. Good ? Or does it just promote more riding away from town business and even lead to more drinking and driving, since the destination is a beach bar.
Once again some big spender comes to save The Cape or Bay Creek, whatever your reality is. They make the best speeches, have the best plans on how they will preserve the Shore way of life and make it better. This is an idea which is sold many times over ,especially in this area. How soon we forget what others before have promised to do and all the while lining their pockets,not pay their taxes or debts owed.Then they leave on a jet plane to their next big payoff. I will take a few lines from P.T BARNUM “No man ever went broke overestimating the ignorance of the American public”,”You can fool most of the people most of the time” and will add one i have heard growing up on the shore ” All that glitters is not gold”.
Wow. Sounds like some greedy developers plan to carve up one of the best golf destinations on the East Coast. I’m really sorry to hear they feel that is necessary
wish the new owners of Bay Creek all the Best in there reviving efforts at BAY CREEK .However i feel that the gated community with improved Security is a great asset to the County and area .one Problem that has affected the Area is the lack of good Management at all levels. including the HOA. having lived in several Gated Communities { Smoke rise] New Jersey Tuxedo Park ] New York ! am confident the issues can be corrected
Just check out what your buying into!?