Blue Ridge Mountain Club: Building a “New-Normal” Community, One House at a Time By Jason Reagan
W
hile the High Country continues to see a boom in housing demand, with would-be buyers finding a new home hard to locate, Blue Ridge Mountain Club (BMRC) continues to do what they’ve always done best—build quality mountain homes amid a tranquil, active mountain community. Located near Boone and Blowing Rock, BRMC sits on more than 6,000 acres just off the Blue Ridge Parkway. In addition to offering move-in ready homes, new semi-custom builds or fully customized homes, BRMC offers a peak experience in High Country living. Amenities include fishing, UTV trails, hiking, dining, fitness center, live events and more. Unlike some real-estate developments that are scrambling to find available inventory during the recent buying surge, BRMC approaches things differently. Demand is not a problem because the community’s housing team is always building to meet demand, with no signs of slowing down.
92 — Summer 2021 CAROLINA MOUNTAIN LIFE
All about Community
“I think any discussion about BRMC still starts with our mission,” said Jim Pitts, BRMC’s General Manager. “Our mission is to build community and it has always been our intent to nurture the spirit of community.” Nurturing that sense of community and mountain living has proven to be the right mission at the right time. It wasn’t always like that. Following the recession of 2008, which popped the luxury real estate bubble in the High Country, BRMC struggled, Pitts said. But by 2018, something changed. BRMC began adding year-round amenities that made the club unique, including a grill and a wellness center, as well as adding newly constructed homes, about five to seven in 2018. Pitts said his team expected to build no more than 15 homes in 2019. But effective marketing efforts and word of mouth changed their plans. “We went into 2019 expecting to build 12 to 15 homes to starting to build 20-25 homes.” And that number continued into 2020 despite the outbreak of COVID-19 and grew to a pace
of 30-35. In fact, a shift in the way people began to think about life, work and family during the pandemic continued to push growth and interest in BRMC. Today, BRMC is on pace to build about 50 new homes per year.
A New Paradigm
2020 changed everything, from our sense of community to what it means to balance work and family. As such, people began to realize they can break out of the pre-pandemic paradigm—living in a metro-adjacent suburb and commuting 30-60 minutes to an office building. Work can be wherever we live. And for many, it just makes sense to build a new life in the Blue Ridge Mountains at communities like BRMC. “I would say the culture of family and the culture of work has shifted dramatically, Pitts said. “And this is largely due to the pandemic. “So, what the pandemic taught us is that family is more important than we ever thought,” he added. “People found themselves having only family for social content
