Weekend Mansions

Farms & Estates
Weekend Mansions
Virginia is hot real estate for the well-to-do nationwide who want a hose with a name. Inventory is going fast.

By George Lyle
If he were sitting on the porch of stately Monticello overlooking his beloved Albemarle County today, what would Thomas Jefferson think of his changed surroundings?

That it’s getting awfully crowded.

For starters there is the Busch clan, which made its fortune brewing beer in St. Louis. The family retreat is down the road. A top-selling author of law thrillers from Mississippi — John Grisham — has a farm nearby, as does German-born telecom and media tycoon John W. Kluge, whose net worth is a whopping $12 billion. In any direction on any given weekend are mansions full of investment bankers, entrepreneurs and CEOs from around the world.

Jack Phillips, CEO of Atlanta-based World
Access, is among the many East Coast
executives with weekend homes in Virginia.
Photo by Mark Rhodes

Virginia’s beauty and cheap real estate, relative to larger Northeastern population centers, have made it a huge draw for the wealthy, many from outside of the state. In great demand are plantation homes in Southside, riverfront estates along the Rappahannock and horse farms in the rolling hills of the Shenandoah Valley. "When compared to states north of here on the East Coast, Virginia is a great deal," says Gloria Armfield, a Realtor with Armfield, Miller & Ripley Inc. in Middleburg. "You are going to find that you can get more land for your money here than you can in Pennsylvania or New Jersey or other places north of here."

In fact, at the moment the market in Virginia for estates, farms and manor homes is so strong that many of the choice properties are gone. "When you are talking about estates in Virginia, everyone will tell you there are not enough," says one Realtor whose specialty is waterfront Chesapeake property.

Armfield now has three showpiece properties in Fauquier County’s hunt country — "The Briar Patch," "Harborvale" and "Boxwood." Those three listings range from $1.85 million to $10 million for the 125-acre Boxwood estate, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. Portions of the home date to 1825. All three listings will likely go fast. "We just can’t keep inventory. I think everyone in Virginia [who deals in estates and farms] will tell you there is almost no inventory. We have shown these properties to clients from all over the world." Her firm is affiliated with Sotheby’s International Realty. "In fact I just came from London where there were Realtors from all over the world, and Virginia is very desirable right now."

• • •

It’s not hard to understand why. One of the sweetest sights John D. "Jack" Phillips sees when he flies over Virginia in his private plane is the lush, green landscape of Albemarle County, where he has a home. "When I’m flying to New York or back to Atlanta sometimes I just like them to fly over. ... I just like to look at it even if I know I won’t be able to stop," says Phillips, CEO and chairman of Atlanta-based World Access Inc., a telecommunications firm.

Why Virginia Real Estate
Is a Hot Ticket

Good prices relative to the crowded Northeast

Proximity to culture in Washington, D.C., Richmond and Charlottesville

Near business centers in New York and Atlanta

Beautiful mountains and Tidewater rivers

Ample cruising spots on Chesapeake Bay
Data: Virginia Business

Phillips owns Airslie estate, a property that welcomes him with detailed mahogany paneling, 22-foot-high ceilings and 600 acres of "the most beautiful, relaxing land I have ever seen." It’s an expensive tonic, however. "To separate me from 9 million of my money I had to be pretty impressed." He first laid eyes on the expansive lawns and brilliant white columns of Airslie on Nov. 15, 1995. "It’s everything you ever dreamed of as a country home. And the history — Thomas Jefferson lived across the street. Right out the driveway is a church that was founded in the 1700s." Try finding that outside Los Angeles, at any price.

Phillips, a Virginia native, also has homes in Atlanta and Sea Island, Ga. But he liked his home and surrounding Albemarle County so much he bought himself another one. Adjoining Findowrie Farm dates to 1733. It added another 300 acres to Phillips’ Albemarle compound, which also has several well-appointed guest homes and barns to house his horses and all-terrain vehicles.

What makes Albemarle real estate so special? "It is a combination of things," says Jim Bonner, a top-selling agent with the Roy Wheeler Agency in Charlottesville who specializes in land, farm and estate listings. "These clients are looking for privacy, so they are looking for a rural setting. With the university here there are the cultural activities but also the rural lifestyle, and that’s a very attractive combination." For its size, for instance, Charlottesville is home to a large number of high-quality, upscale restaurants. "Many of the clients are also interested in equestrian activities, and we are right in the heart of horse country. ... And the climate is great." It’s a seller’s market: Bonner’s premier listing right now is a $3.95 million, 675-acre estate adjoining the Kluge property in Albemarle.

• • •

Meanwhile, the booming economy, despite stock market gyrations, is keeping top-drawer real estate along coastal areas moving as well. "I have been working in this market for 24 years, and I have never seen a market so strong" for exclusive properties, says Mary Ann Campbell, of Jim and Pat Carter Real Estate in Irvington near the tip of the state’s Northern Neck. There’s almost no inventory. Among recent buyers: a couple from California who had tired of cruising the same Pacific Coast routes. They were attracted by the diversity of the Chesapeake Bay with its many islands and inlets.

Another phenomenon is the changing demographics among buyers. They used to be mostly executives close to retirement. Many new ones are fortysomething millionaires from Washington to New York who are looking for weekend retreats. "You used to see only older couples, or mostly older couples, and those interested in equestrian sports," says Middleburg Realtor Armfield. Now you are seeing more and more young couples and couples with children who want the [equestrian] lifestyle ... and are planning on making this their main residence and like the good schools and family atmosphere."

Phillip Thomas, owner of Thomas-Talbot in Middleburg, agrees that younger executives comprise a larger portion of the buyers. "It used to be what we called ‘old money’ here in the ’60s, ’70s and even ’80s," says Thomas. "They would come down here because they were retiring or being developed out from Connecticut or New York and they wanted that genteel English Country lifestyle."

For younger buyers interested in Fauquier and Loudoun properties, being close to Northern Virginia’s high-tech hub also helps. For example, Cisco Systems co-founder and Internet pioneer Sandy Lerner emigrated from California’s Silicon Valley to her 800-acre Loudoun County farm in 1996. Ayshire Farms, with a 17,000-square-foot main house and several other homes and outbuildings, carried a $7 million price tag at the time. She told The Washington Post in 1998 that it was where she wanted to spend the rest of her life.

So what would old Thomas Jefferson think of the weekend gentry who call his old neighborhood home? Or of the corporate jet parking lot at the Charlottesville airport? What about the Phillips family and their all-terrain vehicles? Good neighbor that he was, he’d probably understand. After all, he chose Bedford County for his own rural retreat, Poplar Forest, sans ATVs, of course.