Mountain Living - Blue Ridge Mountains
Real Estate Guide

Queen’s Gap: Striving to be the most exclusive
development in central and Western North Carolina

This hill-country hamlet is the kind of place people escape to, not from.   The air is crisp, autumn leaves glow brilliant, and Main Street is two lanes wide.

Rush hour? Pffff. Ain’t happenin’.

It’s a sleepy community, but it’s not unconscious.
Nearby is one of the premier housing developments in the Southeast, which captures the character and spirit of the Blue Ridge Mountains for a clientele of means and selectivity.

Queen’s Gap, a cut in the mountains near Rutherfordton, has given its name to the development, which will feature about 1,000 homesites, a Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course, an equestrian center, hiking trails and an outfitter’s lodge, all of which will be draped across the verdant slopes and hollows of Long Mountain and Mike’s Mountain.

Queen’s Gap puts the “up” in upscale.

The official presentation, the Legacy Founders Selection Event, was Oct. 20 and 21, when the first potential buyers came to examine the development plans and pick out their own special places in the first of five phases to open.

Butch Hopkins, director of sales for Queen’s Gap, said the entire complex covers about 3,500 acres and will offer some buyers vistas of as much as 80 miles with mountains layered five and six deep to the horizon.

The 1,000 homesites include some townhouses and cottages, and some lots are as high as 2,800 feet in elevation.

Golf legend Jack Nicklaus was in recently to “walk the center lines” of the golf holes in the course to make sure they meet his standards, said Steve Barfield, property consultant.

It sits “in a bowl,” he said, that will be surrounded by homesites overlooking the course and its 38,000-square-foot clubhouse, which will feature a pro shop, meeting rooms and a full-service restaurant.

The first nine holes of the golf course are expected to open by November 2008 and the other nine holes by the spring of 2009.

A separate equestrian center will have 20 barn stalls and will connect to bridle trails for horse-lovers. Queen’s Gap will maintain a small number of horses, and others can board their own horses there, he said.

The outfitter’s lodge will be positioned at the confluence of the Broad River and Cove Creek, which Queen’s Gap will regularly stock with trout.

All structures will be in character with their environment, with rustic wood and stone architecture that “blends with the mountains,” Barfield said.

Buyer covenants also will restrict some construction aesthetics along the same lines, with no bright roofs or other intrusive or out-of-character techniques.

Barfield said Queen’s Gap should reach its maturity within about five years, with all properties sold and all amenities complete.

Marketing for the development is being done on a national and international basis, and potential buyers have been identified from as far away as South Africa, he said.

Hopkins said officials of Rutherfordton and Rutherford County have been very accommodating of the plans for Queen’s Gap. The county will provide water to the development, and Queen’s Gap will have its own community sewer system, he said.

The development should produce a fair number of jobs in the county and also give it a firmer tax base.

Queen’s Gap is the flagship project of Devinshire Land Development Co., owned by entrepreneur Devin McCarthy of Cincinnati.

Hopkins and Barfield talked about McCarthy’s drive and commitment to quality, which they say will be reflected in the quality of life in Queen’s Gap.

Lots offered in Phase 1 of the Queen’s Gap development range from the low $200,000s to the high $800,000s.

Barfield said he believes most buyers at Queen’s Gap will be purchasing second homes, but he says he has a high level of confidence that Queen’s Gap may quickly become the primary resident of many builders there.

Central and Western North Carolina, he said, are rapidly becoming popular areas for upscale buyers from all over the nation. Queen’s Gap’s goal is to be the first and most exclusive of the developments there.

Queen’s Gap  
Location: Near Rutherfordton, N.C. Developer: Devinshire Land Development Co.  
Size: 3,500 acres; maximum elevation, about 2,800 feet Number of homesites: As many as 1,000  
Lot prices: Begin in the low $200,000s Amenities: Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course with a 38,000-square-foot clubhouse; equestrian and boarding facility; 80-mile vista for some lots