Richland (Belleville)

larstbone · PostMar 16, 2006#262006-03-16T21:06+00:00

I talked to someone in-the-know last night about Richland. He said there were some delays, the latest being an issue over bringing water into the site. But that is settled and there should be building this spring.

It doesn't look good to me, of course I'm not in the real-estate industry. But the housing bubble apparently is bursting. Since that was more of a East/West coast phenomenon, it may not be an issue. But I wonder if the moneybags behind the project might grow reluctant.

Also, the source said that the plans are being altered to increase the lot size. If true, it supports my skepticism that this area, or more precisely, this area's leaders do not have the foresight required to implement true TND development. Richland's predecessor, "Recession" or whatever it's called, was supposedly TND, but in reality is just a bunch of cheaply built townhomes close together. It has none of the ambiance like that of http://www.NewTownAtStCharles.com.

xing · PostMar 17, 2006#272006-03-17T02:43+00:00

No, Reunion was a garbage development. I've seen enough renderings of this to know it wont be like that at all.

Expat · PostMar 21, 2006#282006-03-21T15:51+00:00

Van Der Werf mentions Richland in his column this week. Apparently, something is moving forward.

larstbone · PostMar 24, 2006#292006-03-24T03:42+00:00

Stl Today

NEW FRONTIER: The developers of Richland, the 1,800-acre development in Belleville, have sold 443 of the 529 lots in Phase One to builders Vantage Homes of Illinois, Coughlin Development Inc. and T.R. Hughes Inc., the St. Charles County-based builder that is rapidly increasing its presence in the Metro East. In addition, a startup builder, SS & Associates, will build its first houses on the former pick-your-own orchard.

The development, built around a series of lakes that fill old mining shafts, may have as many as 4,500 houses when completed in a decade.

Richland will be built on old strip mine, so I don't think the term "mining shafts" is accurate.

xing · PostSep 19, 2006#302006-09-19T05:30+00:00

Big project still waiting to bear fruit

By Doug Moore

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

09/16/2006

BELLEVILLE

It was billed as the largest residential development in the St. Louis area. At $2 billion, it would include 4,000 homes on 1,900 acres, a town center, golf course, private school and seven parks.

Million-dollar homes would be built backing to 100 acres of strip mine lakes - stocked with bass, catfish and perch - with conservation areas set up to protect deer, owls and other wildlife.

The plan for the Richland development, named after one of two creeks that run through the property, was laid out in a fancy groundbreaking ceremony in June 2005. City and state officials hailed it as the development that would put the Metro East area on the map as a premier place to live. Advertisement

But once the red and white striped tent came down and the gold shovels were put away, little happened on the site, once home to a pick-your-own orchard owned by the Schlueter family. The site has been abandoned for months and is overgrown with weeds.

But new investors are behind the project, and the design is being revamped to put even more houses on the site. Exactly when construction will begin remains unclear. Conceptual plans will not be ready for two to three months and final design sometime after that.

"The project is being redesigned to better fit what we want to do in that area," said Oren Manelis, chief executive officer of American First Management of Hollywood, Fla. "The project still is a green light. Obviously it's taking even longer than the eight years everybody has been waiting."

It was 1998 when Floyd Schlueter first contacted city officials with a plan to build an upscale, self-contained community, often referred to by planners as New Urbanism. It is to be Southern Illinois' first foray into the "live, work and play" environment that has become popular around the country - similar to WingHaven in O'Fallon, Mo., and New Town in St. Charles.

Schlueter decided to end six generations of running an orchard by bulldozing the peach and apple trees and blackberry and blueberry bushes that had produced a good living for his family to make way for fields of homes.

cont...

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/s ... enDocument

trent · PostSep 21, 2006#312006-09-21T00:58+00:00

Putting more houses on the land sounds good. Density is never a bad thing.

diesel · PostNov 14, 2007#322007-11-14T02:31+00:00

Looks like this property should have stayed as an orchard. Anybody have any idea why Richland is still an open field? Looks like this porject is no more.

Richland (Belleville)

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