Originally developed in the early 1970's by Cal Burns & First Charter Corporation, Captains Cove in 
Greenbackville, VA has seen it highs and lows. Captains' Cove Golf & Yacht Club was designed by the same person who laid out Ocean Pines and the two communties are virtually identical when it comes to the size of lots, roads, easements, canals and more.
With over 4,400 lots on plats; marketing companies, real estate developers and local real estate agents have worked this piece of land on the Chincoteague Bay for decades.
Half of the project never had sewer and water brought to it and was marketed in the early days as the 'unbuildable' sections where salesmen told lies to potential buyers that one day it would be just like 'Ocean Pines' and they would be able to build on those lots.
In the meantime they would sell them as 'Membership' lots so that one could use the pool, golf course and marina. During the post "First Charter" period in the 1980's & 90's these 'unbuildable' lots never sold for much more than $500 after the original marketing company sold out the entire development in the 70's, using the same "high pressure" sales tactics that sold out Ocean Pines.
Building was slow from the beginning until the 90's with maybe 200+ houses built there with most being on the water or golf course. There were a few bursts of activity when several groups would come in and buy up lots for resale, but the original developer maintained control.
Then comes the real estate bubble from 2000 to 2005; and former Ocean City realtors of the Moore, Warfield & Glick fame saw the Cove as an opportunity they couldn't go wrong on.
The "new Captain's Cove" development group purchased all of the property owned by the original developer Cal Burns and the property held by the home owners association, along with the developer rights. They hired architects to design a new club house, indoor pool, & marina building. They put in new gates to the community, and began the process of petitioning the county to bring water and sewer to the unbuildable lots. The formerly 'unbuildable' sections were labeled by realtors as 'future development' lots, even though there was no legal basis for that label.
They had not met Atlantic's Mr. Wolf, nor the Fleming family with deep roots in Accomack County going back hundreds of years. These folks put together a group of residents that contested each and every method that the developers proposed to develop the 2,200 + 'unbuildable' lots. Their argument and one that is valid is that if all of those lots are developed the crap will have no where to go. The Chincoteague Bay does not empty as efficiently as it fills thus often leaving stale water in the bay for days on end. (hence the reason Chincoteague oysters have their unique flavor)
The Bay is easily polluted and it's health is questionable without the development dumping millions of gallons of sewage into its waterways.
Many options were explored and one was even to pump all of the sewage into trucks with trucks taking it to local farms and spraying it on the crops grown therein. This wasn't such a bad idea in theory, but then cost of diesel went through the roof and the reality of how many trips and to how many farms would have to be made, turned out to be not such a great idea. Additionally, crops meant for human consumption aren't allowed to be sprayed with human waste. The surrounding landowners refused to sell the 'new developers' the rights to spray crap on their land.
All the while this battle was waging between the developer and the citizens in and around the area the marketing team for the developers were selling this project to people who wanted the Ocean City area but were priced out of the market. Suddenly, papers advertising OC realtors were pushing Cove lots and homes. Prices for 'buildable' interior lots that were $5,000 in the 90's jumped to $50,000.00 or more. Golf course lots that were $8,000 to $10,000 during the 90's spiked up to over $100,000.00 while being pitched as a good investment. Canal & bayfront lots that were once a hard sell at $25,000.00 became a 'great investment' at $250,000.00 with greed and huge profits being paid to the agents and 'early investors' of what was once considered the white elephant of Accomack County.
Then came the 'marketing' of 2,200 unbuildable lots with no water, power or sewer and no permits or approved plans to develop these sections. These lots jumped from $500 per lot to $30,000 and more with hollow promises of future development by greedy realtors looking for a quick flip or fat commission. 'Investors' up and down the shore thought Moore Warfield and Glick were going to get a new sewage treatment plant built and they started buying all of the unbuildable lots they could get their hands on. The $500 'membership lots' were then being touted as 'future development' and sold for $30,000.00 to $150,000.00 or more each.
Now the tides have turned, the real estate market is in murkier water than the Chincoteague Bay on a slack tide in August, and not only is nothing being sold, but the prices are dropping like a lead balloon.
Now the astute developers have left PNC Bank holding the bag on about $18,000,000 in loans as they filed for bankruptcy protection last week, with PNC demanding the outstanding $22,000,000 loans secured by real estate. That's close to $40,000.000 bucks folks, bet on being able to obtain approvals to dump crap from 2,200 homesites in the Chincoteague Bay that had not been approved for 30-years by the original developer.
The original cost to develop Captain's Cove in the1970's was under $3 million dollars and the original developer sold out in about 3-years.
Hopefully things will go back to normal and regular folks can buy a house in the low $100s once again and Captains Cove can go back to being that strange little community that you know that if placed anywhere else on the face of the earth would be successfully huge and crowded. But it is a quirky little development that just doesn't seem to fit into any of those molds that we know from the outside world, and it is probably the reason that we love it.
18 comments:
It's a shame, but this is happening all over the country.
Greedy developers bought up land, came up with plans, got their plans approved, then sold the property for even a higher price tag to pocket potentially millions of dollars. The new developer comes in, and because they paid so much for the land and approved plans, they now must raise the price of the lots/homes to make a big buck. Then they sold the houses/lots at the top of an artificially priced market but couldn't sell all of them because some people were smart enough to know that the houses were not worth what they were asking for them. So now, there they sit with all of this project partially built (some totally built out) and they can't sell them.
Boo Hoo....I don't feel at all sorry for you. If you (developer) had charged a fair price to begin with for your product, you could have sold every one of the lots/homes and still been quite wealthy.
Some of the developers locally are looking for bailouts and abatements from the local town and county governments...as a taxpayer, I say tell them to take a hike! I'm not interested in bailing out greed...there's enough of that being done on the federal level right now.
For the record, it is Robert Warfield, not Hal Glick, or Bruce Moore with the old Moore Warfield and Glick. Also Warfields son and some low life name Townsend/Cane lied and stole from many. They all got what they deserved.
I own lots in that undeveloped area of Captain's cove, that I bought from Mr. Burns for a more than reasonable price. Mr. Burns unlike the current HOA, at least knew we could not build on our lots and was reasonable with our yearly HOA fees. Mr. Burns was always reasonable with his yearly fees and kept the Cove as a attractive retirement community. The current HOA has those of us that cannot develop our properties paying the same HOA fees as those who live in Captains Cove and get to enjoy all the ammenties. The HOA since they have taken over continue to raise the fees, but yet offer no reduced fee for the land owners that cannot build. The county when given the prospect of the water system being approved raised the property taxes from a 400.00 to a 4000.00 dollar assessment. Thankfully Accomack county does have a reasonable property tax rate on undeveloped land. I was offered by some of those developers up to 30,000 dollars for my properties, but I was not interested in selling. I bought the property because I love the area, I go to Chincoteague on a frequent basis to enjoy the peace and quiet, and the locals I have made friends with there. I have never even used the facilities at Captains Cove, but yet I and many others have had to pay for those that can live there to enjoy them. I do understand the point the local residents do have about the proposed water and sewer system, I have listened to both sides. I must give credit to the developers, they did have a state of the art system that exceeded EPA requirements, but that area is too fragile to take chances with discharging into Swans Gut creek. They need to find the land, or put it somewhere on the unbuildable lots waste water retention ponds, and recycle the water if they want to complete at least a large portion of the remaining lots. At this point I'am realizing I bought into a losing investment, and will loose all the money I have had to dump into worthless lots, and I'm sure there will be no bailout for me from any government or developer (LOL)The sad part is I have waited many years to build a home in Captains Cove and now it looks like it will never happen. I myself and along with alot of other average folks like myself just wanted a nice little piece of what this community was supposed to be.
I have a home there in the Cove that we just built....we loved the charm it had before the new ammenties - with the new stuff we just hate it! The greed reeks all over that place and we can't seem to enjoy it like we thought we would. Its a shame that things could not be left alone and greed and to take over. We want to sell our place but with conditions as such who will buy us out? There will be no bail out for us as the prices of being part of this community continue to rise!
My family was from Accomac County
centuries ago and I was considering
buying a retirement home in Captain's Cove. No more. This place is messed up, major league,
with the people now there going to be billed more and more for basic services. The few will have to carry the financial burden of supporting those too greedy to
do the job the right way. I wish
you all good luck. As for me, I will build on the old family farm
in Maryland. Adios.
Wow. I have a relative that owns one of the unbuildable lots. She is elderly and of failing health. The new condo association got an aggressive attorney who scared her into paying the $10,000 in back HOA fees she owed. Unbelieveable that the State of Virginia would allow folks who own unbuildable lots to pay homeowner's fees. Blatant thievery. And my relative didn't buy it at bubble time; her family bought it years ago probably back in the late 70's early 80's. Even once she pays the back fees, she'll have to pay $800/year so other folks can play golf. Shameful. I'm considering looking into a class action lawsuit for those owners of unbuildable lots. If the county/community doesn't want it built on, then buy the unbuildable lots or do something to make it financially feasible for the "developer" to make those areas parkland.
If you get the addresses of all us poor bastards that own un buildable lots in the Cove. I for one will go for a class action lawsuit, they are screwing us big time. I really fell sorry for the folks that paid big money for their lots thinking they would get water and sewer. The idiot developers went in and tried to tell Accomack county what they were going to do, and guess who won. Anybody else want to vent their frustration all of us lot owners that can build bneed to stand together, we may just have enough numbers to create change or havoc with how things are run. Leave email addresses if you are seriously interested. Section 14 pissed off lot owner !!!
My parents bought two lots in 1973 in preparation for retirement. My Dad loved to fish and was looking forward to his leisaure years. One of the lots was waterfront and the other on Captain's Corridor 7-8 lots in from the entrance of the community. Needless to say my Dad passed away just before he retired and never realized his dream. Owning the property has been an abomination for my family. My mother sold the waterfront and gifted the wooded lot to me 20 years ago.For over 40 years we have paid taxes, water availabilty fees, POA on the wooded lot. The expenditures have totaled much more than the original cost of the property. In fact the fees paid now have made me come to the conclusion that I would be better giving the property to someone that really wants to live in Captain's Cove. Take my lot please.
Don't believe everything you read. First the unbuildable lots were not always going to be unbuildable. The county denied the association the necessary infrastructure to take on more sewer taps. Hence those lots would have been buildable. The developer never missed a payment with the bank. They had a note that was to be renewed and the bank denied the renewal so they could clean up their books and take advantage of the government bail out.
Pretty interesting when you get the whole story.
Seems like the developer has stopped making payments on his personal residence in The Cove! What does that say about The Cove as being a good investment for any prospective buyer or investor!!?? Don't believe anything this developer says!!!!!!
If a class action suit gets started count my brother in. He has owned for 30 years and I've often wondered how it is legal to charge someone fees when they have no access to their property. I understand the right to use the amenities which would be great if they provided a place to stay.
Now they are offering a "deal" Give us your lot and we will sell you another one for $5,000 that maybe is in the buildable section.
Bought two waterfront lots in 1989. Built in 1990. Lived there part-time from 1990 to 2000, full time from 2000 to 2006. The Fleming family and Ron Wolf (our areas rep on the County Council) did stand up for the "little people" in terms of health and safety and for the bounty of the Chincoteague Bay, but so did LOTS of people who lived in both Greenbackville and Captain's Cove. Let's put this in perspective -- I wrote Mr. Fleming's letter to the State regulators and wrote letters for many folks in Greenbackville and the Cove who wanted to send a letter but didn't really know how. I talked to them about why they were so concerned about the Bay becoming Captain's Cove sewer and then went and drafted a letter that captured their ideas. The "Preserve the Bay" organization came into being and was Chaired by Lee Merrill (an Eastern Shore native who at that time had lived in Greenbackville for more than 30 years). Though we won that battle over the sewage and "treated water" going into the Bay we soon had more battles to fight with the new developer.
I bailed out of the Cove in 2006. I put my house on the market that year but couldn't sell it. Three years later it finally sold for less than half the price of the original listing.
Lots of luck to others who are still sticking it out!
We just received a subpoena for back dues !! Dues for what ? We had an unbuilt able lot which we gave back to the private owner we got it from 6 years ago after we paid over 100k for nothing but lies ,and for the people of captains cove that put up such a stink over progress .these people should foot the whole bill they were able to enjoy such a great piece of property at everyone else's expense .
Sea view previous lot owner
Anon
Please tell me that the developers and realtors were charged with fraud and held accountable
Could any current owners in the cove please provide any current status updates for 2015? Have these issues improved any or are things still failing in this development?
I inherited a lot in Captain's Cove from my sister. After going through probate I went to visit the lot only to be told that you can't get there from here. In other words, an unbuildable lot. I have tried to give the lot back to the Cove. They only want me to trade for a buildable lot. I live in the Midwest and never intend to move. Why should I be forced to pay a fee for lot which I will never use? Does the phrase "involuntary servitude" mean anything these days?
It's sad but I too will be the latest causality on the Captain Cove take over of my property. I can't afford to pay those fees, and I have fallen behind, and really cannot understand why I bothered to keep paying as long as I have. I guess I hoped it would get better, it's not for me anyway. I wish the best for those still fighting in the Cove to get things right, but the current developer and his cronies have different ideas. They will keep taking properties until they have what they need for their unknown plan, they have already run the values in the ground, so it will not be long. But they will reap what they sow !!!
In 2003 I took over a 1/2 acre lot at Captains Cove Golf and yacht club from my Dad who purchased in late 1970's for approx. $11,000. It was in a section that was to be developed in future with roads, electric, sewer, etc. We paid annual membership dues of roughly $500/yr. Meanwhile many other sections were fully developed and have homes.
Approx. 6years ago I was informed by the club that the area will not be developed. I was offered a lot swap to a buildable area that did have roads. The lots I was offered to select from were undesirable. They were smaller (approx. 1/6 acre) and valued at only $3,000. It was not fair. I declined this swap and asked them to just take my lot back and end my membership. They said they wouldn't do it, basically because they wanted to keep collecting the annual dues. I couldn't get them to resolve the issue with a better lot and they wouldn't take back the lot I have. I stopped paying the annual dues at that time. Membership dues began increasing year by year to $1,200 per year now. My Dad paid over $11,000 in dues and state land taxes over the time he owned the lot from 1975 to 2003.I estimate I paid at least $6,000 in dues and state land taxes over the period of 2003 to 2013. Now they say I owe them over $9000 in back dues and interest and atty. fees. The attorneys for the cove filed a lien for my failure to pay. I don't know what to do. I don’t want to ruin my credit. My wife and I are on Social Security and cannot afford to pay the back dues and pay $1200/year to continue our membership. Has anyone out there found a way out
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