Blog Post

Our Chickaominy Falls communty was featured in River City Magazine! Take a look at the article below.

Credit: River City Magazine

If you seek a healthier, happier, Hanover lifestyle, take heart. It’s becoming more and more a reality every day. We’re talking about Chickahominy Falls, Cornerstone Homes exciting 55+ Agri-community that’s beginning to take shape out on Cedar Lane in the county.

We first told you about this unique (first of its kind in the United States, in fact) community nearly three years ago when Cornerstone Homes, the Richmond based homebuilder that focuses exclusively on active adult, age-targeted new home communities, announced their plans for Chickahominy Falls, a nearly 200-acre project located on the former Hargrove property.

For an update on just where things stand, we spoke with Kirsten Nease, Cornerstone’s director of marketing.

“We’re under construction,” Nease says. “The curbsand guttersare in and nine homes are under construction. We anticipate our first closings in May.” This is getting exciting.

As we’ve reported previously, this is not a run-of-the-mill community. This place is going to be a focal point for the county, especially for those who are serious about wanting a true farm-to-table lifestyle. Throughout the fall, Woodside Farms harvested a variety of vegetables and flowers. This wintervegetables have been started in the “hoop house” on the property, which will allow them to nurture indoor through the winter. In the spring, a variety of plants will be transplanted to the fields outside.

Adjacent to the indoor growing area, is the bright red barn, a landmark at Chickahominy Falls. In one side of the barn, you’ll find the new Sales Center, which is scheduled to open in mid-January. But there’s much more to the barn than the sales area. On the other side of the barn, there is an event center. What kind of events?

“Community coffees, happy hours, chili cook-offs, and various other social and educational activities,” Nease says. There’ll be a huge professional kitchen, too, and once the residents start moving in, you’ll not only be able to interact with local chefs and, perhaps, take in a seminar or two, you’ll also be able to purchase prepared meals or meal kits to enjoy with your family at home.

Professional farm hands will be tending the gardens and through a CSA (community supported agriculture), residents will be able to purchase fresh produce in season. As Nease phrases it, “A healthier, happier lifestyle” is the main product that will flourish at Chickahominy Falls.

But since this is a residential community, perhaps we should tell you about the homes. Ultimately there will be eight distinct neighborhoods. Both Cornerstone as well as Stylecraft, another local homebuilder with considerable experience in developing age-restricted and age-targeted neighborhoods, will be building in Chickahominy Falls.

Cornerstone’s first neighborhood, Woodside Meadows, will consist of some 62 detached carriage homes, each on a private lot with private driveways and charming front porches. These distinctive homes will offer all of your everyday needs on one floor. Featuring spacious great rooms and kitchens for casual entertaining and large family gatherings, spa-inspired owner’s suites and thoughtfully designed storage spaces throughout the home. The Homowners’ Association will ensure that all exterior maintenance is cared for, including lawn mowing, gutter cleaning and snow removal. Both craftsman and farm-style homes are being built in the neighborhood, some with an upper bonus room and several with lower levels for additional space to customize to your needs. The lower level home sites will offer up to 3,000 square feet of living space.

Another 40 cottage-style, main level living homes are being built by Stylecraft in the Orchards, a neighborhood in which homeowners will purchase their home but be worry free of the home site, itself. The home sites will be owned and maintained by the Homeowners Association. Stylecraft’s cottages feature open floor plan designs where everything you need is just around the corner and flows in perfect harmony. Finished upstairs lofts offer bonus flex space to customize to your needs.

All residents will enjoy the benefits of the varied events and activities. Additionally, they will have the opportunity to rent the event space in the barn for private functions. In 2020, a new clubhouse, similar in style to the barn, will be opened. The clubhouse complex will offer residents an indoor fitness center as well as an outdoor pool and large social spaces to gather with friends and neighbors.

If an agri-centric lifestyle sounds like your kind of living, it’s nice to know that it’s virtually in your own backyard. Nease tells me that individuals from around the county as well as from across the United States and even from Canada and Europe have gotten on the VIP list in order to stay abreast of all the excitement that is Chickahominy Falls. “We have onethree buyers coming from the West Coast,” she says, adding that the Central Virginia area is proving to be quite attractive to this active adult demographic. She cites such factors as our proximity to excellent health care, major highways, as well as the beach and the mountains.

But then, youalready know that. If you want to know more about Chickahominy Falls, then perhaps you should do what over 2,500 other active adults have already done and get on the VIP list (go to ChickahominyFalls.com) and be the first to find out what’s happening in Hanover’s new happier and healthier community.

Credit: River City Magazine