The Sanctuary at Lake Russell features Arthur Hills-designed 18

CALHOUN FALLS, S.C. -- Esteemed course architect Arthur Hills has been selected to design 18 holes here on the tranquil shores of Lake Russell, where the initial development phase of The Sanctuary at Lake Russell — a residential resort community unique to the Southeast — is now underway.

Developed by Charlotte-based U.S. Land Investments, The Sanctuary is all about Lake Russell, the most beautiful of three inter-connected lakes located in the Piedmont region of Georgia and South Carolina. Formed by a late 20th century damning of the upper Savannah River, the shores of Lake Russell will soon be home to private homes, a semi-private golf club from the hand of Arthur Hills/Steve Forrest and Associates, a marina, and the luxury of Calhoun Falls State Park (with its 25,000 acres of protected public land) right next door.

“The Sanctuary at Lake Russell is a different sort of second-home/retirement opportunity because, while it sits close to the populations centers of Atlanta, Charlotte, Greenville and Augusta, it’s a world away in terms of pace, lifestyle and environment,” said Stephen Rosenburgh, chairman of U.S. Land Investments. “The Lake is truly a wonder: 26,000 acres, 500 miles of shoreline, 176 feet deep, crystal clear and — because it’s a damned river — the water height never fluctuates more than 5 feet. The area all around our community is almost completely undeveloped for miles. We like to say that resident of The Sanctuary will have Calhoun Falls State Park for their backyard, Lake Russell for their swimming pool and neighbors of whitetail deer, eastern wild turkeys and more waterfowl than we have time to name.”

The Sanctuary at Lake Russell (www.liveatlakerussell.com) lies in part on the historic Millwood Plantation, ancestral home of the John C. Calhoun family, benefactors of the Town of Calhoun Falls, S.C., near the border of South Carolina and Georgia. Life here is slow and gracious; nearby Abbeville, S.C., is considered to have one of the best collections of late Victorian architecture in the state. Still, The Sanctuary also lies in close proximity to several of the Southeast’s major population centers: Located at the intersections of SC Highways 72 and 81, the community is one hour from Augusta and Greenville, two from Atlanta, and three from Charlotte.

On May 3, the development launched its second sales event; the first sold 34 of 370 available home lots. For sales information, call 800-831-LAKE.

The Sanctuary at Lake Russell is a multi-phase development of considerable scope and ambition. This first phase will include 370 homes, pool club and pavilion, recreation fields and picnic areas, trail systems, marina and fishing piers (Russell renowned as one of the best fishing lakes in the Southeast). Phases II through V will include the semi-private golf course, resort hotel and second marina. The full master plan calls for no more than 2,000 residential real estate units.

“We’ve done a great deal of course design work across the Southeast, but we’ve never seen a piece of property quite like this one,” said Arthur Hills, partner and principal with Toledo, Ohio-based Arthur Hills/Steve Forrest and Associations, designers of more than 200 courses worldwide including the Golf Club of Georgia, famed Palmetto Dunes on Hilton Head Island, and the new Club at Olde Stone, recently named by Golfweek magazine the top course in all of Kentucky.

Hills/Forrest is expert at fashioning golf courses in the context of luxury real estate communities, a priority at The Sanctuary. In 2007, Golf Connoisseur ranked three of the firm’s designs, including Fiddler’s Creek and Bonita Bay in Naples, Fla., among the nation’s top 40 real estate courses in the world. “We see that sort of potential at Lake Russell, which is why we’re involved,” Hills added. “The lake is exquisite, and its creation seemed to have been executed with great golf in mind.”

Richard B. Russell Dam and Lake was indeed created under the supervision of the Savannah District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It was authorized for construction by the 1966 Flood Control Act as Trotters Shoals Lake. It was later renamed for the late senator from Georgia. It’s one of three inter-connected dams and lakes: The first project, J. Strom Thurmond Dam and Lake was completed in 1954; Hartwell Dam and Lake was second and completed in 1962. Russell was the last of the three projects constructed; permanent filling began in October 1983 and reached full pool in December 1984.

US Land Investments is the force behinds some of the region’s most successful residential developments; Legend Oaks Plantation in Summerville, S.C.; Starnes Crossing in Waxhaw, N.C.; Stonebridge in Mineral Springs, N.C.; and Grass Meadows in Charlotte, to name just a few. But The Sanctuary at Lake Russell is a departure not just in scope but, in Rosenburgh’s view, setting.

“It’s a unique place, a retreat — in large part because it’s a lake that, until 1984, wasn’t even here,” he says. “You can see and feel these untouched, pristine qualities the moment you stand there on the shore. It’s like living in a national park.

“Fact is, there simply aren’t too many places left like this one. It’s one of the many serendipities surrounding Lake Russell and this project. Here’s another one: The Army Corps of Engineers insisted on a 300-foot setback reserved for public use and recreation. Accordingly, our golf holes will sit in this buffer, lining the lake, and they will be stunning.”

Arthur Hills/Steve Forest and Associates is one of golf’s most active and respected practitioners of golf course design. Today the firm has more than 40 separate original design and renovation and projects underway in Mexico, Canada, the United States and Europe. Course raters can’t stop gushing about two of the firm’s new Swedish designs: iiHBiSand Golf Club, just more than a year old but already ranked by Golf Digest among the world’s Top 100 courses outside the United States (#82), and Hills Golf Club, named by Travel+Leisure Golf magazine among the top 10 courses to open worldwide in 2005. Both are strong candidates for the 2018 Ryder Cup Matches in Sweden. Closer to home, the Wolfdancer Course at the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines near Austin, Texas — was named among GOLF Magazine’s “Top 10 New Courses You Can Play” for 2006.

Contact: Hal Phillips

Mandarin Media/US

207-926-3700

hphillips@mandarinmedia.net