With five children grown and on their own, Judd and Cathy Cool decided to sell their home in Winnetka, buy a downtown condominium and acquire a second home for weekend getaways in a ”fun environment.”
They`re not alone in their quest.
More than 7 million U.S. households own some form of recreational property-detached home or cabin, condo, townhouse, time share, camping or building site, according to the American Resort and Residential Development Association (ARRDA).
What`s more, the ARRDA recently completed the most extensive study ever conducted on recreational property ownership and found that 13 million American households have a 50 percent or better chance of buying some type of recreational property in the next decade.
”A 1988 Roper Organization survey revealed that 42 percent of Americans say owning a vacation home is characteristic of `the good life,` up from 19 percent in 1975,” said Tom Franks, ARRDA vice president.
Second homes account for 5 percent of the total U.S. housing market today, with 75,000 to 100,000 new second-home units being built annually, according to Gopal Ahluwalia, research director of the National Association of Home Builders.
With 50 percent of these property owners aged 40 to 59 years, Franks said the industry will benefit substantially from the Baby Boomers as more of them enter this age bracket and their peak earning years.
”Americans have accumulated more than $900 billion in recreational property,” he said. ”This is an industry poised for rapid expansion.”
Such second-home expansion already is evident along Lake Michigan from Michigan City, Ind., to southwestern Michigan and in such Wisconsin harbor cities as Racine, where Chicago area residents are buying condominiums, townhouses and summer cottages or building single-family homes for weekend retreats.
”We spent two years looking for an area near Chicago that offered lake, beach and boating facilities,” said Cool, vice president/human resources for Inland Steel Industries.
Their search ended in New Buffalo, Mich., with Dunewood, a new condominium boat dock development being built on a natural sand dune.
”Dunewood was the complete answer for us,” he said. ”We found it unique-a harbor and beach setting in a small town atmosphere but with all the amenities for a fun environment.”
They purchased a two-bedroom, two-bath end unit on the dock with a slip for their 42-foot power boat.
”We use it nearly every weekend,” Cool said. ”Even the winters are very comfortable, with good cross-country skiing and a nice getaway. It complements our city lifestyle very well.”
The Cools are representative of the 22 families who thus far have purchased condos at Dunewood, according to Norma Cook, of Nadra K Real Estate, which is handling sales and marketing for the development.
”Chicago area boaters make up the bulk of our buyers,” she said. ”When we began sales in April, 1987, most of our buyers were Yuppies with small children, but now we have mostly empty-nesters.”
Dunewood is planned for five buildings with a total of 58 units facing either the harbor or beach. The third building is under construction, with the remaining two scheduled for completion by 1993.
The units range from 1,300 to 2,500 square feet and include wood-burning fireplace, vaulted ceilings, wall-to-wall carpeting, all appliances and individual heating and air conditioning. They are priced from $269,000 to $429,000.
Second-home buyers John and Virginia Hennyberry aren`t boaters but they did want maintenance-free housing on Lake Michigan within a convenient drive of their home in northwest suburban Arlington Heights.
They found it 1 1/2 hours away in Michigan City, Ind., at Dunescape Beach Club, a new condominium project designed by architect Gerald Fedorshak that includes 64 two-bedroom and four penthouse units, an indoor swimming pool and health club as well as a private beach.
The L-shaped, nine-story building sits on seven acres of Lake Michigan frontage off Lake Shore Drive just east of 90-acre Washington Park and marinas with 700 slips. Priced from $175,000 to $280,000, the units are 70 percent sold.
Hennyberry, a retired advertising copywriter, and his wife are parents of a married son with four children and a daughter, a Mt. Prospect teacher. The condo is ”well-suited for family gatherings.”
”The beach is the biggest attraction for us,” he said. ”We like to walk it as well as the park next door. We use the indoor pool, and my wife rides the Exercycle in the health club.”
Hennyberry said they expect to use the condo three to four months a year, including winter weekends.
Not all second-home buyers yearn for sun and sea.
At Camp Madron, a former Boy Scout camp 25 miles northwest of New Buffalo near Buchanan, Mich., Horwitz Matthews is developing a private compound of 40 homes on heavily wooded acre lots.
The 300-acre site includes a 60-acre spring-fed lake with beach, two tennis courts, an orchard, baseball field and a lodge that has been renovated as a community center with great hall, dining room, kitchen and library.
Access to the grounds is tightly controlled from a single security entrance.
Buyers may have their own architect build a home that complies with the project`s rustic guidelines or choose from one of three plans designed by Daniel Wheeler Architects Inc. The homes, including site, are priced from $165,000.
”I`ve always wanted something like the old family compounds of the East Coast where families could enjoy a retreat from city life, but I never found anything like that here,” said Rod McMahon, a partner in a Loop law firm. Thus, when he heard of Camp Madron, ”I was immediately attracted to it.”
Last February he and his wife, Cherie Laaperi, and their two children, 8 and 6, spent their first weekend in a new cedar frame cottage adapted from one of the Wheeler plans.
”We expanded the standard plan to add a master bedroom suite,” McMahon said. The house also has a loft sleeping area for the children, a guest bedroom and two baths.
Gaslight Pointe in Racine, Wis., is geared to boaters and ”people who just want to enjoy the sounds and views of a water environment,” said Joan Ditchman, vice president of sales and marketing for Midwest Development Corp. The $75-million waterfront development, a joint venture of Midwest and Wispark, real estate development arm of Wisconsin Energy Corp., will include 104 condominiums, 22 townhouses, 130 new boat slips on the 110-acre harbor/
marina, 130,000-square-foot restaurant/retail mall and a 100,000-square-foot warehouse to be converted into rental apartments.
Seventy percent of the buyers (12 condos and seven townhouses) to date have been boaters and have purchased boat slips priced from $39,400 (35 feet) to $52,000 (44 feet). One-half of the slips are rental, the balance condominium-type ownership.
Bob Derenski, of Glenview, part owner of a Chicago plastics firm, will move into his new townhouse at Gaslight Pointe in August even though he recently sold his 40-foot power boat.
He and his wife, Wendy, have four grown children and five grandchildren.
”We kept our boat at Racine for 10 years and fell in love with the area,” he said. ”When it came time to sell the boat, we didn`t want to leave Racine and were drawn to this new development.”
Outside his townhouse will be docked his new 18-foot runabout ”to get us around the marinas to visit friends.”
His enthusiasm for the getaway home stems from what he calls ”the upbeat ambiance of Racine” and a location close enough to Glenview and the Loop for weekends or even commuting to his Loop office.
A townhouse model is open for the units that range from $295,900 to $399,000 for 1,2192 to 3,000 square feet with three to four bedrooms and 2 1/ 2 to three baths.
The condominium model will open Aug. 15. The units range from 952 to 1,380 square feet for one to three bedrooms and 1 1/2 to two baths priced from $119,000 to $160,000.
