Garnie Nygren explains the Serenbe concept of New Urbanist village living to members of the National Association of Real Estate Editors at the Farmhouse, a restaurant at the Inn at Serenbe, Ga. Staff photo / Harold Bubil
PALMETTO, Ga. — The proof is in the chicken.
Steve and Marie Nygren must be doing something right at their southern version of Utopia, in the Chattahoochee Hills 30 miles south of Atlanta.
At the Inn at Serenbe’s Farmhouse restaurant, the chicken, lightly fried in a black iron skillet in a secret batter that appears to include buttermilk, has been selected the best in the country by none other than Martha Stewart. A recent sampling by this reporter led to an endorsement of that appraisal.
It is noteworthy that the “happy chicken” was not bought at a nearby grocery store. It was raised organically a scant 65 miles from Serenbe, a 1,000-acre New Urbanist community that is developed with sustainability in mind.
The fried chicken lunch, served to members of the National Association of Real Estate Editors on a tour earlier this summer, was supplemented by vegetables grown at Serenbe Farms, including a memorable cole slaw. Residents may buy shares in the farm — $800 for the 30-weeks season — and redeem them for 8 to 15 pounds of produce each Tuesday.
The farm, an example of “development-supported agriculture,” has three paid employees and monthly volunteer days for residents who want to get dirty.
Serenbe Farms, 30 miles south of Atlanta. Staff photo / Harold Bubil
“When parents here ask their kids if they want some fresh berries, the kids just go outside and pick them,” said Steve Nygren.
His passion is developing a community with a connection to nature.
He points to high rates of disease, such as cancer, asthma and depression, and said they may be caused by people living in stressful, air-tight environments without sunshine, fresh-air and “the well-placed weed.”
“It’s not complicated; we don’t have to figure it out,” said the developer, noting that visitors are enthralled by the standard Serenbe home landscape — weeds, tall grasses and wildflowers. “Just go look at how people lived 80 years ago, whether it is stormwater management or growing your own food.
“And guess what happens as a side result? Community!”
Developing Serenbe was not a case of his taking the low-hanging fruit. In the early-1990s, restaurant developer Nygren took his family for a ride in the country and ended up falling in love with a 1905 farmhouse. The Nygrens paid about $400,000 for the 60-acre farm “on a whim” for use as a weekend home, and three years later sold Steve’s Atlanta restaurant business, The Pleasant Peasant, to run the farmhouse as a bed and breakfast.
New homes under construction in Serenbe, Ga. Staff photo / Harold Bubil
A few years later, alarmed at construction activity nearby, he feared that Atlanta’s ravenous appetite for real estate would overtake his country-fried Shangri-La. So he bought 900 additional acres of forest and farm and worked with neighbors to create a development code for a 33,000-acre rural area mandating that new development take the form of villages in which 80 percent of the land is left in a natural state.
He found it difficult to find financial backers.
“The bankers thought we were nuts,” Nygren said. “No wonder. I look around now and can see we were (working) on passion.
“But they couldn’t understand it. There were no statistics that showed people would pay as much for a house that backed up to a forest or a farm as they would for one that backed up to a golf course.”
Finally, a banker at a small community bank caught on to the Serenbe dream. But there was a catch. Steve Nygren owned a lot of property in downtown Atlanta, and he had to offer it as collateral.
“If I would put up property that was worth three times what I wanted to borrow, he would lend us the money.”
Serenbe's "downtown" has quaint shops, mostly. Staff photo / Harold Bubil
Steve Nygren called a family meeting and announced he had put his three daughters’ college funds in a separate account, but he wanted to put the remainder of his wealth at stake on the Serenbe gamble. The family voted to do it.
By 2004, Serenbe, so named because Marie Nygren though it a “serene place to be,” was underway. When the first families moved in in 2005 and prices were rising, the family investment “looked like a very wise decision,” said Steve Nygren. “By 2009, it got very scary.” The initial bank loans had been paid back, “but we got caught up in the intoxication.”
Phase 2 had just gone up on borrowed money, but home builders were out of the game.
“We weren’t selling to builders, we were selling to individuals, and we sold just enough to keep our debt current and step our way out of this.”
Eight years later, two village-like downtowns are filling up with shops. Neotraditional houses, cottages and townhouses are going up. Resale estate homes are in the $500,000 range. “Nest homes” of 900 square feet are $249,000.
“We would have a lot more construction if the banks would just loan to the builders who want to build spec houses. People can’t envision from dirt and a floor plan.”
The Inn at Serenbe is a converted 1905 farmhouse. Staff photo / Harold Bubil.
The development uses up-to-date green technologies and appliances, including photovoltaic panels and geothermal heating and cooling, in a partnership with the upscale German manufacturer Bosch, although homeowners are not required to use Bosch. The houses are built to the EarthCraft green standard developed by the home builders association in Atlanta. It also has its own wastewater treatment system using natural filtration.
Serenbe is a leading example of the farm-to-table movement of consuming locally grown foods.
The Nygrens say Serenbe could survive on its own.
Neotraditional architecture predominates in Serenbe. Staff photo / Harold Bubil
“The long-term vision is to create the Napa Valley of the Southeast,” said Garnie Nygren, Steve and Marie’s eldest child, now Serenbe’s director of operations. “Instead of having grapevines, we will have a network of organic farms. It will be a well-planned Napa Valley.”
Serenbe has 350 residents — “It’s constantly growing,” says spokeswoman Kathryn Lott — in its two hamlets, Selborne and Grange. A third hamlet, Nado, is in the planning stages. Up to 100,000 people could live there at build-out, decades away, said Steve Nygren.
He doesn’t worry about a paradise lost.
“We are going to demonstrate you don’t have to destroy the landscape to accommodate the development,” he said, drawing a comparison to how England has sheltered a growing nation on a small island.
“It still looks like countryside, but there is a lot of density in those little villages.
“We will be the most unique city in the country.”
