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PAT O'NEAL

NHI DREAM HOME | NEIGHBORHOOD



BY CATHERINE TRAUGOT/PHOTOS BY RAY STRAWBRIDGE
WINTER 2005 ISSUE

When you first drive into The Hills of Rosemont you have to look hard to see the houses. The spacious lots filled with hardwood and pine trees provide the type of privacy that Rosemont’s developers believed was lacking in many of the Triangle neighborhoods that feature large homes.

“[In some other neighborhoods] houses take up the whole homesite,’’ says Kevin O’Neal, project manager and member of the family that owns Chatham Development Corporation. “Some of our buyers come from areas where they are used to bigger homesites.’’

At The Hills of Rosemont, just 64 homesites share the 404-acre gated community. The smallest lot is 3.5 acres, the largest is 13. The minimum home size is 4,000 for a one-story home, 4,500 for a two-story. Carriage houses and other outbuildings are allowed on all of the lots if they fit with the architectural guidelines.

Lot prices, which start at $289,000 for the smallest lot compare favorably to smaller lots in other estate home neighborhoods, O’Neal says. Amenities are simple. There are beautiful gates and landscaping at each of the neighborhood’s three entrances—and there are cameras monitoring the gates. Lakes and ponds dot the development including one that has simple wooden docks built along it for the homesites that surround it. “The lake is for canoeing or small sailboats,’’ O’Neal says.

And homeowners don’t need to sacrifice location for the acreage. Despite being tucked away on a road that until recently had a section of gravel, The Hills of Rosemont is just four miles from the Research Triangle Park and The Streets at Southpoint mall. It’s seven miles from UNC-Chapel Hill and 11 miles from Duke University. It’s across from the prestigious Olde Chatham Golf Course. Interstate 540 will eventually be extended a few miles to the east. “We didn’t even know Southpoint was coming when Dad found the land,’’ O’Neal says.

The O’Neals were excited to be part of the NHI Dream Home. Chatham Development generously donated $50,000 to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Eastern NC as part of its participation in the project. JT Cayton, chair of the project, says this area of the Triangle—becoming more popular with estate home developers—was a major factor in choosing The Hills of Rosemont.

O’Neal’s father, Pat O’Neal, discovered the property when O’Kelly Chapel Road was still gravel, back in the late 1990s. He saw a sign that he thought read 19.4 acres, but mud obscured the extra 100 acres listed for sale. Just a few miles south of I-40, it sits in an area that is no longer miles away from the city sewer and water hookups that could bring much more dense development. But it is near Jordan Lake, and that gave the O’Neal family the edge they were looking for in making sure they could develop something that would remain peaceful and private. On the north and partially on the west, the development is bordered by the Army Corp of Engineers Jordan Reserve—land that will remain undeveloped. The family bought some surrounding land and the result was The Hills of Rosemont.

“It’s just a little bit of paradise,’’ O’Neal says.▪

CATHERINE TRAUGOT IS A FREELANCE WRITER FROM CARY.

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