Yalick Farms, being developed on 56 acres that once produced crops sold at a stand on the other side of Memorial Highway, is the first project of its kind in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Mostly residential, the “luxury condominium village,” as one partner described it, will include a clubhouse, an Olympic-size swimming pool, tennis courts and small shops.

Lead developer J. Naparlo said Yalick Farms would not be considered unusual in the Williamsburg, Va. area, where the Plymouth native now lives.

“There are projects like this down here,” he said recently; developments that include small shops with housing above or nearby.

Partner Perry Dunford, who also is the general contractor, said the first of a planned 112 townhouses will be ready for sale within weeks. A sales office will be set up in the clubhouse and initially they will be marketed directly by the developers.

Both Naparlo and Dunford tout the building quality and amenities at Yalick Farms.

Naparlo says they spent more to build with interesting details and angles on rooflines. “It’s cheaper to build straight across but it doesn’t have any character.”

Dunford said all exterior materials are low-maintenance, such as concrete board siding, stone and brick.

“We had people tell us to use vinyl and you can make more profit,” he said. “We’re not here for that; we’re here to do something we’re proud of. Everything we’ve done together for the past 30 years has been first class.”

The two-story, 2,280 square-foot units are built in clusters of two, three or four units. Each townhouse has three bedrooms, 2 � baths, kitchen, dining room, living room, an extra loft room, a library/studio/office and a one-car garage.

Townhouse prices will start in the high $270s, Dunford said. A few that have walk-out basements will be higher.

The site plan also calls for 128 smaller “apex” condominiums and a cluster of 35 units each with 1,400 square-foot shops at ground level and two-bedroom living spaces above. Dunford said those will be sold fee simple, giving the owner flexibility to live or work in them, or to lease out one or both floors.

Dunford and his daughter created the basic designs for the buildings, and then handed them over to Paul Lewis of Williams, Kinsman and Lewis Architecture in Wilkes-Barre for finishing.

The clubhouse will contain a ballroom, game room, kitchen and bar facilities and a fitness room as well as the condominium association’s business office. Showers and lockers will be on the lower level, with the pool and tennis courts just outside.

While Dunford said the developers are trying to retain the image of the former farm – going so far as to restore a barn and install a water tank that looks like a silo – the density is higher than first projected, which worries Dallas Borough Manager Joe Moskovitz. He fought for far-reaching improvements to traffic control when Naparlo initially sought to build a Wal-Mart or other big-box retailer on the site.

“The scope of this project mimics a residential Wal-Mart,” Moskovitz said, with the attendant traffic. And he’s heard rumors that a big-box store might be built nearby, which could be the start of more intensive commercial development.

“Once the genie’s out of the bottle, you know it’s going to spawn other competitors,” he said.

The Yalick Farms plan includes up to six commercial parcels along Memorial Highway, but none are large enough for a big-box store.

Michael Slacktish, president of Century 21/Signature Properties in Shavertown, said it’s hard to forecast what demand for the new development will be like. He said 2007 is slower than last year, but, “if they’re priced right, things sell” in any real estate market.

Slacktish said there is more need for lower-priced housing in the region.

“This is a market (the Back Mountain) that has a lot of high-priced houses,” he said. “I think patio homes are needed back here.”

Naparlo is developing Yalick Farms in part with the profit he made by building and selling more than 20 Burger King restaurants in the Williamsburg area – twice.

“I’ll have $12 million in that deal before I sell the first unit,” he said. Some of the expense is in the nearly-finished clubhouse and roads and infrastructure that will serve the entire development even though it will take five years to build and sell all the units.

Naparlo said he wanted that work done so that early buyers aren’t disrupted by heavy construction.

“Most people don’t do this,” Naparlo said. “They do it in phases.”

source:http://www.timesleader.com

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