Raleigh LaGrange Area Emerges as Posh District; Homes Start at $1M

By Einat Paz-Frankel
– Memphis Business Journal –

Forget Belle Meade and River Oaks. The Raleigh LaGrange district in east Shelby County is the up-and-coming hot spot for wealthy home buyers.

With houses starting at $1 million and going all the way up to $6 million, wealthy buyers are increasingly looking at the behemoth homes being erected along Collierville-Arlington, Raleigh LaGrange and Monterey in unincorporated east Shelby County.

Also known as Collierville Reserve, the district is now attracting more families thanks to prestigious private schools Briarcrest Christian School and St. George’s Independent School moving there.

"It’s a huge selling point for us," says Jimmy Reed, president of Marx & Bensdorf Realtors.

Nestled in between blue creeks and surrounded by tranquil meadows and thick woods, the area’s untypical topography — its rolling hills are a rare sight in the Mississippi River Delta — is gaining popularity among Mid-Southerners.

"Only about 15% of the buyers are coming from out of town," Reed says.

Home buyers come largely from the medical community, are local business owners, or are FedEx Corp. executives.

In Reed’s opinion, there are only a handful of districts in Memphis that draw buyers who are building $1 million-plus, custom-style "fine" houses, including Belle Meade and River Oaks in East Memphis.

Home buyers who are in the market for a multi-million dollar mansion and prefer to live in the country are increasingly choosing the Raleigh-LaGrange area, located just north of Collierville.

"A lot of folks, if they choose to move to a more rural, pastoral area with rolling terrain, will move to this district," Reed says.

Reed has sold many lots in the area over the past couple of years and is also on the board of Gray’s Creek Association, which outlined the strict guidelines by which residential development should be done in the area, another major draw for buyers. Preserving the nature is key, Reed says.

"There’s no commercial sprawl," he says. "Commercial development is limited to set intersections."

With no retail in sight, at least for the time being — Boyle Investment Co. and others plan to develop designated, limited retail areas in the spirit of the quiet district — the area’s houses are immersed in green and blue, with each property dominating at least 2 acres. Houses start at 6,000 square feet and go up to 10,000 square feet.

Reed sold the 114-acre Notting Hill subdivision in 1999, which was developed into 27 homes on mostly 4-acre lots.

"This gated community set the benchmark for the district," he says. "It preserved the trees and natural waterways with no gutters and no curbs."

The 27 homes were sold in 18 months, Reed says, calling the development a "huge success." Lots there started at close to $300,000 and houses ranged from $1.4 million-$4 million.

Several additional developments followed, including LaGrange, The Grove, Wycliffe, and most recently, Spring Creek Ranch, which is a little more affordable — some houses there sell for under $1 million, Reed says. Boyle is the developer of the residential community that surrounds the 320-acre Jack Nicklaus golf course.

In April, seven Spring Creek Ranch properties were featured in the 2007 Spring Vesta Show. They were sold out within one weekend.

Boyle is heavily vested in the Raleigh-LaGrange district: Spring Creek Ranch stretches across 1,000 acres, and will ultimately include 450 homes.

"This is one of the largest projects we’ve done," says Gary Thompson, vice president at Boyle.

In a few years, the area will no longer be considered "far out," he says, as it will become part of the new Highway 385 loop that will circumvent the Memphis metropolis similar to I-240.

The ultra-suburban homes of the reserve district — huge, secluded and away from the madding crowds of the city — are also a hotbed for new, expensive technologies and lavish amenities.

Home builder Bud Hurley, owner of Architectural Construction, says multi-million dollar homes in the area typically feature at least a four-car garage, with some buyers requiring an eight-car garage to accommodate their vintage cars or horse trailers. Other popular amenities include a bungalow, or a room above the garage, cigar porch, swimming pool and an outdoor pool house.

Home builder Bud Hurley, owner of Architectural Construction, says multi-million dollar homes in the area typically feature at least a four-car garage, with some buyers requiring an eight-car garage to accommodate their vintage cars or horse trailers. Other popular amenities include a bungalow, or a room above the garage, cigar porch, swimming pool and an outdoor pool house.

"People who want to live large want two to four acres of land, yet they want to live in a private, gated community," Hurley says. "They want to be able to have a detached eight-car garage and woods for privacy."

Hurley, who sold $12 million worth of speculative homes in the area over the past two years, says the smart home concept is trendy among LaGrange corridor dwellers. Smart homes provide residents control of all the mechanical systems, including lighting, Internet, HVAC, security systems and even Tivos from one or more central control units. If they need to change the CD on their surround sound stereo system, they can do so in the comfort of any of their standard five bedrooms or five bathrooms.

Amenities alone can easily reach $500,000 in these mansions, says Tom Fisher, principal of Tom Fisher Builder. A swimming pool can cost $350,000; high-end electronics, $250,000; and the appliances package alone costs about $30,000, just $10,000 below the annual median household income in Tennessee.

"They want it because they can have it," Fisher says about ‘smart home’ owners.

Presently, the bustling development in the area is slowing down some, negatively affected by the subprime mortgage crisis that snowballed into all housing development, even luxury homes. The national slowdown has "manifested itself in Memphis," Reed says, even though the job market and other economic indicators in the area are improving.

Moreover, development will likely come to a halt once the vast, yet finite land is filled with eight-acre estate houses that touch the county’s border.

"This is the last remaining big block of land to be developed in Shelby County," Reed says. "It will change the complexion of our county forever."