Welcome to Wisteria, a new 33-home community for Nemacolin's luxury resort associates wishing to live where they work. Developed in partnership with 84 Lumber, the nation’s largest privately held building materials supplier, Nemacolin’s Wisteria is one of the nation’s largest residential communities for resort associates that live on the property.
New Luxury Resort Community Wisteria
The Wisteria community features a slew of exclusive amenities, including a market, pub, and fitness center. The development will bring 33 new patio homes to the resort’s pre-existing options of co-living, split, and private apartments. When combined, this will provide housing for approximately 300 Nemacolin associates.
The luxury resort sits on 2,200 acres of land in Farmington, Pa., and touts itself as “a real-life wonderland” offering outdoor adventures, fine dining, and events, according to co-developer 84 Lumber.
“Being situated in rural Pennsylvania, for the type of talent we would like to attract and retain at the resort, we just don’t have something like this in the area, so we built a suburb inside of the resort community itself,” said Trey Matheu, Managing Director, Nemacolin. “We wanted to bring the same level of luxury at the resort to our associate housing.”
Employee Housing History
While Wisteria presents a fresh foray for associate housing in the hospitality sector, the concept itself isn’t new. We’ve seen school districts build workforce housing for its staff in order to curb high turnover rates (influenced by a lack of affordable housing in the area).
One project by the Jefferson Union High School District is the first K-12 school district to pass a bond exclusively to build an affordable housing community for teachers and staff. 705 Serramonte, built specifically for the district’s faculty and staff, provides Bay Area teachers with housing at a fraction of market rate costs—as low as 50 percent.
Meanwhile in the mountainous regions of the U.S., ski resorts and vacation areas have begun building housing for employees as well. The Grand Targhee Resort in Alta, Wyo., constructed 16 units for its staff in response to the influx of people purchasing second homes around the area.
Similar situations have affected workers all over the country—from nurses and laboratory technicians in Bozeman, Mont., to real estate developers in Panama City Beach, Fla. Employee housing benefits workers with a reliable home at a reasonable price, and gives companies the potential of a competitive advantage.
“As the [Nemacolin] property continues to grow and expand, it is crucial that our associates have better and easier access to quality resources and an inviting community to call home,” says Maggie Hardy, Owner and CEO, 84 Lumber.
On the Building Team:
Owner/Developer: Nemacolin, 84 Lumber
Architectural Design: OBA Design
Interior Design: Melissa McLay Interiors
Retail Design: King Retail Solutions
General Contractor: Martik Brothers, Inc.
Related Stories
| May 20, 2011
Hotels taking bath out of the bathroom
Bathtubs are disappearing from many hotels across the country as chains use the freed-up space to install ever more luxurious showers, according to a recent USAToday report. Of course, we reported on this move--and 6 other hospitality trends--back in 2006 in our special report "The Inn Things: Seven Radical New Trends in Hotel Design."
| Mar 11, 2011
Mexico resort/conference complex adopts colonial style
Located in the mountains north of Mexico City, the Rosewood San Miguel de Allende resort complex in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, has 67 guest rooms and suites, as well as 100 condo units within the Artesana Rosewood Residences.
| Mar 9, 2011
Igor Krnajski, SVP with Denihan Hospitality Group, on hotel construction and understanding the industry
Igor Krnajski, SVP for Design and Construction with Denihan Hospitality Group, New York, N.Y., on the state of hotel construction, understanding the hotel operators’ mindset, and where the work is.
| Jan 25, 2011
AIA reports: Hotels, retail to lead U.S. construction recovery
U.S. nonresidential construction activity will decline this year but recover in 2012, led by hotel and retail sectors, according to a twice-yearly forecast by the American Institute of Architects. Overall nonresidential construction spending is expected to fall by 2% this year before rising by 5% in 2012, adjusted for inflation. The projected decline marks a deteriorating outlook compared to the prior survey in July 2010, when a 2011 recovery was expected.
| Jan 25, 2011
InterContinental Hotels Group gets LEED pre-certification
InterContinental Hotels Group, the world's largest hotel group by number of rooms, announced that its in-house sustainability system Green Engage has been awarded LEED volume pre-certification established from the USGBC and verified by the Green Building Certification Institute. IHG is the first hotel company to receive this award for an existing hotels program.
| Dec 17, 2010
Historic Rhode Island hotel reborn with modern amenities
The iconic Ocean House resort in Watch Hill, R.I., had to be torn down in 2005 when systemic deficiencies made restoration unfeasible. Centerbrook Architects and Planners, Centerbrook, Conn., designed a new version of the hotel, working with preservation societies to save or recreate favorite elements of the original building, and incorporating them into the contemporary structure. The new resort has 49 guest rooms and 23 residences, plus banquet halls, a corporate boardroom, a private clubroom, a spa and fitness center, an indoor lap pool, a bar, and the obligatory international croquet court. Dimeo Construction, Providence, R.I., was the construction manager.
| Dec 17, 2010
Gemstone-inspired design earns India’s first LEED Gold for a hotel
The Park Hotel Hyderabad in Hyderabad, India, was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill to combine inspirations from the region’s jewelry-making traditions with sustainable elements.
| Nov 16, 2010
CityCenter’s new Harmon Hotel targeted for demolition
MGM Resorts officials want to demolish the unopened 27-story Harmon Hotel—one of the main components of its brand new $8.5 billion CityCenter development in Las Vegas. In 2008, inspectors found structural work on the Harmon didn’t match building plans submitted to the county, with construction issues focused on improperly placed steel reinforcing bar. In January 2009, MGM scrapped the building’s 200 condo units on the upper floors and stopped the tower at 27 stories, focusing on the Harmon having just 400 hotel rooms. With the Lord Norman Foster-designed building mired in litigation, construction has since been halted on the interior, and the blue-glass tower is essentially a 27-story empty shell.
| Sep 30, 2010
Luxury hotels lead industry in green accommodations
Results from the American Hotel & Lodging Association’s 2010 Lodging Survey showed that luxury and upper-upscale hotels are most likely to feature green amenities and earn green certifications. Results were tallied from 8,800 respondents, for a very respectable 18% response rate. Questions focused on 14 green-related categories, including allergy-free rooms, water-saving programs, energy management systems, recycling programs, green certification, and green renovation.
| Sep 13, 2010
Conquering a Mountain of Construction Challenges
Brutal winter weather, shortages of materials, escalating costs, occasional visits from the local bear population-all these were joys this Building Team experienced working a new resort high up in the Sierra Nevada.
