A region with a history tied to nautical cinematic thrills may now be put on the map by an ambitious development featuring exciting new course and club components.

 

The prominent headland that juts into the Atlantic Ocean off the southeast tip of North Carolina first came to be known as “Cape Fear” when crew members on the 1585 expedition of Sir Richard Grenville expressed trepidation about the possibility of a wreck, as they tried to navigate the area’s tricky waters while seeking to reach Roanoke Island.

Four centuries later, Hollywood stirred up new anxieties with the original release in 1962 of “Cape Fear,” starring Gregory Peck in the role of Max Cady, the ex-convict who comes to the region to seek revenge on the family of the lawyer who put Cady behind bars. The tensions reached new heights in 1991 with the Martin Scorcese-directed remake of the film, which earned Robert DeNiro an Oscar nomination for his chilling portrayal of Cady.

Cape Fear National AT A GLANCE • Location: Leland, N.C.. • Opened for play: Fall 2009 • Projected annual rounds: 35,000-40,000 first year; 45,000-50,000 at full use • Projected F&B revenues: $1 million (50% a la carte, 50% banquet) • Head Golf Professional: Ron Thomason • Director of Sales & Marketing: Brad Walker • Club Manager: Kate Piediscalzo • Executive Chef: Randy Tugwell • Superintendent: Steve Kincer • Management: KemperSports

One of DeNiro’s memorable lines in the movie was, “Every man has to go through hell to reach paradise.” Jimmy Sloan may not have recalled that thought while attending a meeting of the Urban Land Institute a few years ago, but he did get an uneasy feeling when a speaker asked attendees for a show of hands from anyone who was currently in the process of building a golf course. As Chief Operations Officer of Brunswick Forest, a new community being developed in the town of Leland, N.C., just south of Wilmington and in the heart of the Cape Fear region, Sloan raised his hand—then looked around the room and saw that his was the only one in the air.

Undeterred, Sloan returned to Leland to resume direction of an ambitious development, covering 5,000 acres and with eventual plans for  8,000 new homes, that would seek to bring a new slice of paradise, and new thrills of a much more enjoyable nature, to the Cape Fear region.

Today, 600 homes have been built and two key components of the development’s master plan—an 18,000-sq. ft. Fitness & Wellness Center and yes, the new golf course that Sloan had to own up to—have opened for business. And there are some other things about the Brunswick Forest project, as it’s gone forward, that would have also been difficult for any other developers at that Urban Land Institute meeting a few years back to say they were in step with:

• The $2 billion project is being financed without incurring any debt by Lord Baltimore Capital Corporation, originally founded as the real estate affiliate of American Oil Company (Amoco).

• Eventually, the master plan calls for the creation of a River Club outdoor activities center on the property’s Town Creek, with screened pavilion, deck, boat dock and canoe and kayaking launch facilities. There will also be a garden/community center with a glass-enclosed meeting room, covered picnic pavilion and events lawn, and additional amenities, including more than 100 miles of biking and leisure trails. A 500,000-sq. ft. commercial center, including shops and a medical building, is also planned for just inside the property’s entrance off U.S. Highway 17, the main route between Wilmington and Myrtle Beach, S.C.

“Essentially, we’re building a small town,” says Sloan.

“But it’s not for retirees, it will be a residential community for young and old alike. We already have school buses running routes inside the gates.

“And while we’re not a golf resort, golf is a key part of the overall lifestyle we want to create here,” Sloan adds. “We think Wilmington is a unique market in that it can support a high-end daily fee course that will also fit well within a residential community.”

The Fitness & Wellness Center is already drawing over 100 users/day in the off-season and nearly 300/day in the summer—keeping Club Manager Kate Piediscalzo busy while helping Director of Sales and Marketing Brad Walker show how Brunswick Forest has already come to life.

Worth the Drive
The Tim Cate-designed Cape Fear National Golf Club (CFN), which opened for play last fall and marked its official grand opening last month, is also not the centerpiece of the Brunswick Forest development from a geographic standpoint—it is located at the south edge of the property, a long, winding drive from the gates on Highway 17.

Where the course was located (which includes room to add nine more holes at a later date) was selected partly to give Cate the best opportunity to transform the coastal marshland into a rolling ride through water, sand, forest and many other varied types of terrain and growth. The course, which can be walked, features a number of large waste bunkers that serve double-duty as cart paths, adding to the feeling of being immersed in the natural surroundings, even for those who choose to ride. (Many players do need some assurance that it’s OK to take carts through the sand the first time out, reports the club’s Superintendent, Steve Kincer—in fact, he adds, some golfers wonder at first if they really should have a cart, because a signature of Cate’s design is that no paths can be seen from the tees.)

Once a round has been completed, says Head Golf Professional Ron Thomason, the Cape Fear National experience proves to “sell itself” as a layout that feels “exclusive by nature, even though it’s open to all.

“There’s really not much you can compare it to,” says Thomason, who came to Cape Fear National from the nearby Bald Head Island Golf Club.

Jim Stegall, Executive Vice President for Managed Properties with KemperSports, which has been contracted by Brunswick Forest to run Cape Fear National Golf Club and the Fitness & Wellness Center, projects that between 35,000 and 40,000 rounds will be played on the course this year, with annual rounds eventually growing to the 45,000-50,000 range. Stegall expects the mix of who’s playing the rounds to eventually break down to about 30% by Brunswick Forest residents (who can book tee times further in advance than the general public), 30% by players from the greater Wilmington area, and the remaining 40% by visitors who are attracted to the Carolinas as a golfing mecca, but looking for a more exclusive alternative to the Myrtle Beach scene.

Executive Chef Randy Tugwell is making the most of both the indoor and outdoor space that’s available to him to establish the Cape Fear National clubhouse as a dining and events destination, too.

The course’s location at the back of the property has not proved to be a deterrent to non-resident play, Stegall adds, and in fact has helped to promote home sales, as players get a full look at all that’s already behind the Brunswick Forest gates—and a good feel for what’s still to come—while making their way to the Cape Fear clubhouse.

That clubhouse is also proving to be an attraction in its own right. While only 11,000 sq. ft. in size, the building “plays” much larger and has already become a destination for shoppers drawn to the wide variety of logo’d CFN merchandise offered in its tasteful, high-ceilinged pro shop, and for diners attracted to the flavorful F&B menus provided under the direction of Executive Chef Randy Tugwell, formerly with Carolina Country Club and the City Club of Wilmington.

The CFN clubhouse grille has already proved to be popular despite limited hours (11 to 5, seven days a week, with food also made available at the bar later in the evening). Tugwell’s menus feature many savory regional specialties, such as his “Carolina Chowder” that includes catfish, blue crab, shrimp and a spring lobster broth.

CFN has also developed extensive catering menus, to take full advantage of the expansive event lawn overlooking the golf course’s 9th hole, as well as other venues that either currently exist at the Fitness & Wellness Center, which has a poolside grille and snack bar, or will be added as future expansion within Brunswick Forest brings on new facilities like the River Club.

All told, KemperSports’ Stegall thinks CFN has the potential to exceed $1 million in annual F&B sales, split roughly evenly between a la carte and banquet revenues. Even better, he adds, the efficiencies built into the clubhouse are expected to allow F&B for the club to run at a 20% profit margin.

“I really applaud the ownership for not overbuilding [the clubhouse]; the size is just perfect,” Stegall says.

Working Out Well
It also didn’t take much time for Brunswick Forest’s Fitness & Wellness Center, which includes indoor/outdoor pools, six hard-surface, lighted tennis courts, fully equipped workout rooms, an aerobics studio, and an inviting lobby/reception area, to come to life, too.

Under the direction of Club Manager Kate Piediscalzo, the Center is already bustling with community-oriented group activities that include everything from scrapbooking to Japanese flower arranging to introductory language and computer classes. Off-site outings to local theaters and other attractions are also in full swing.

Average daily use of the Center now exceeds over 100 in the offseason, and has approached 300 in the summer, as the state-of-the-art pools have proved to be especially strong draws.

The manner in which all of the facilities and services associated with Cape Fear National and Brunswick Forest have already sprung to life attests to the unusually sound vision and strength exhibited by the people behind the project, Stegall feels.

The Brunswick Forest master plan calls for the eventual creation of a River Club outdoor activities center on the property’s Town Creek, with screened pavilion, deck, boat dock and canoe and kayak

“The owners should get tremendous credit not only for following through with their plans to open something like [Cape Fear National] despite the state of the economy, but also—setting golf aside—for how they’ve first planned, and then proceeded with, the development of an award-winning community,” Stegall says. “The buzz about what’s coming together at Brunswick Forest has been as great outside the gates as within them. And it’s a buzz that’s extending pretty far up and down the East Coast and into the Midwest, too, because the Wilmington area is really becoming known as the next great place to visit, to move to, to hold business events, or to consider as a site for retirement or a second home.”

Stegall also thinks the Brunswick Forest model will be what other developers will have to follow, if more hands are to be raised at meetings when questions about plans to build golf courses are posed.

“This is how golf should be fit in [to development projects], as a major amenity, but not the only amenity,” he says. “And doing so in a way that presents the golf component as ‘exclusive in nature, but open to all’ is important not only for the success of home sales, but also to attract the level of outside interest that’s needed to help sustain the operation, especially as it’s getting off the ground.”

In fact—while the contexts are vastly different—another parallel could be drawn between what Brunswick Forest and Cape Fear National might be doing for the golf industry, and another of Robert DeNiro’s memorable lines from “Cape Fear” in his role as Max Cady:

“I am going to teach you the meaning of commitment…You could say I’m here to save you.”