Trey park is quietly developing SML’s most comprehensive community
By Andie Gibson
Trey Park isn’t exactly certain how the rumor
got started – that he rode into the Smith Mountain Lake area from Texas to begin developing property. Nothing against the
Lone Star state – Park was born in Texas, but his family moved to Roanoke when he was six.
“I’ve lived at the Lake the past 16 years,” said Park, who
graduated from William Byrd High School and later earned
degrees in Management and Finance from East Carolina
University. He worked construction jobs during summer
breaks and got into the business fulltime following graduation.
In the early 1990s, Park founded Park Place Construction and
began developing small residential communities in Roanoke.
In the early 2000s, he began focusing his business more at
the Lake, developing the communities of Land’s End and
Compass Cove.
Park, 40, is now putting his extensive education and years
of construction experience to the test by building LakeWatch
Plantation, a 479-acre community off Rt. 122 in Franklin
County described as a “self-contained rural village.” The
project is expected to take 10 years to complete, said Park,
who’s single and enjoys keeping a low profile.
Reaction to LakeWatch from the SML community has
been “really positive so far because we’ve been careful to
retain all the natural features and beauty of the site,” Park
said. “We landscaped with a berm to protect the view from
122 and created an internal road structure. It’s not going to be
a concrete jungle.”
In fact, the development will have 220 acres of open space,
including a trail system that will wind through restaurants,
shopping, medical services and residential areas. Park said he
committed to a low-impact design to help protect the waters
of SML, and he lobbied Franklin County administrators to
allow him to build a private sewer plant on the property, a
project that cost $4 million.
“It gives us the ability to provide a hotel, YMCA,
restaurants – things that the conventional system didn’t
allow for,” he said. “By building a modern, self-sufficient
sewer system, we were able to overcome that hurdle to get
the community approved.”
Park said Bojangles and Chop Chop Gourmet, an upscale
Asian fusion restaurant, will be among the first businesses in
LakeWatch. A new 8,000 square-foot YMCA – to be built on
10 acres Park donated – is also set to begin construction in the
spring. The exterior of all the buildings will have a similar
look and feel.
“We’re able to really create a village feel by pre-selecting
all the materials that will be used. All of the buildings will
draw from the same palette of color and texture,” said Park,
describing structures with signature stone facades and metal
roofs. Even the Bojangles restaurant will have copper trim
instead of its signature orange awnings, he said.
“LakeWatch is a community that I would live in. That’s
what makes it so easy for me to market it,” said Lori Shultz-
Moore, an associate broker with Long & Foster Realtors. “I
truly believe in the village lifestyle and am very excited to
talk about it. There is no other community at Smith Mountain
Lake that offers so many lifestyle choices to the buyer.”
On the residential side, Park said he expects construction
of single family homes to begin soon on some of the 64
waterfront lots for sale. LakeWatch will also include 35
Carriage Homes, 25 estate lots, 68 condominiums, and a
gated community of 36 cottages for a total of 228 residences.
A model of the Carriage Homes – which range in size from
2,101 to 2,755, is already open.
“The community is unique because residents can shop,
dine, exercise and visit their physician and never leave the
neighborhood,” said Shultz-Moore. “For residents who are
tired of yard maintenance, this type of community is ideal.”
Plans are also underway for construction of a 20,000
square-foot retail center, which is expected to house Bank
of Botetourt, a sports bar, coffee shop and retail businesses.
Park, who won the Smith Mountain Lake Chamber’s
Economic Growth and Development Award for 2006,
expects LakeWatch to eventually include a technology park,
fire station, auto service center, hotel and conference center,
medical complex, funeral home, church and senior living
facility. He’s also donated land to Franklin County to be
used for a branch library as well as land for recreation with a
playground and youth ball field.
“Getting to know Trey has been enlightening,” said
Shultz-Moore. “It didn’t take me long to realize how much
he loves and cares about Smith Mountain Lake. Donating
land to the new YMCA and proposed county library are just
two examples of how he cares about his community. We
are lucky to have such a dedicated developer who is truly a
visionary.”
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