Resort plans condo complex

A Smith Mountain Lake resort community is preparing to build a waterfront condominium complex with what it bills as affordable offerings.

Mariner’s Landing, a resort in Huddleston located off Smith Mountain Lake Parkway with a golf course and other amenities, will construct Longview at the Pointe. It will consist of two buildings with a total of 32 units that offer vacation inter-vals, or deeded timeshares.

Through an interval program, a person could purchase a share in a two-bedroom or three-bedroom condo for four weeks. A buyer could also opt to buy the whole unit outright and remarket it in intervals.

The starting price for a four-week share in a two-bedroom condo would be $49,500, said Jay White, a marketing consult-ant whose family owns the resort community. The pricing is affordable compared with other offerings at the lake, he said, and has a goal to introduce “another type of ownership at Smith Mountain Lake.”

“It’s just another way for people to enjoy the lake and not bankrupt themselves,” said White. “In my mind, the goal is to offer an affordable product someone can buy young and continue to upgrade until they want to retire and get the home of their choice.”

White said if a person were interested in upgrading after five years of ownership, the resort would purchase the unit back at the original price.

The land has been cleared for the first phase of the development, which White said should be completed by spring of 2010. It is located next to the Pointe at Mariner’s Landing, the main commercial hub of the resort that includes a restaurant, conference center and vacation rentals.

The project is part of an overall master plan the resort has submitted to Bedford County officials, said White. Though the economy has caused the resort to scale back development in some areas, White said it is actually driving this particular project.

“We figured if we ramped up the interval program at the Longview, we would be able to hit the ground running when the economy turns around,” White said. “Mariner’s has always been good about being able to take the temperature of the mar-ket. We just don’t throw something up and pray that it sticks. We go through a lot of planning and market research, and that’s why we’re still around.”

John A. White, Jay’s father, bought Mariner’s Landing in 1992 and Jay said it’s been an active development since 1998 with other projects in the works.

“This is really becoming a great destination, a great resort, and it needs to be affordable for people to enjoy it,” said Jay White. “If it’s going to be successful, it’s got to be available to people who can afford $750,000 or $50,000.”

The second phase of Longview would depend on the success of the first, he said.

“But we’re committed to having the first building done by spring 2010.”

• To learn more about the interval program and Longview at the Pointe, call (540) 297-8190 or visit http://www.marinerslanding.com/longview.