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Columbus native Marty Finta spent the
summer days of his youth at Buckeye Lake with his family in a sparse, small
cabin.
Despite the tight quarters, Finta always
has looked back on those days with fondness. In the mid-’90s, he was part of
a team that created Heron Bay, a 150-acre housing development on the lake,
patterned after the shingled houses of Nantucket Island.
Now, Finta’s Triglyph Development Co.
Inc. has begun site work for Snug Harbor, a 120-acre project designed to
continue a sea change taking place at the 176-year-old lake. Plans for the
$70 million development include 230 housing units and a town center with a
boardwalk lined with restaurants and shops on the south shore of Buckeye
Lake.
Triglyph’s plan also includes digging a
30-acre harbor that, next year, will be linked to the lake. A nearby 7-acre
island will be the site of up to 21 cottages and boathouses.
"There’s no other place in central
Ohio that you can leave the office and quickly be on an island, turn off the
mobile phone and escape the world," Finta said.
Buckeye Lake was dug in the 1830s as a
source of water for the Ohio-Erie Canal. Near the turn of the 20 th century,
it became a state park, and an amusement park later was built there.
Tourists swarmed Buckeye Lake in the
1920s. Big-name musical acts found their way to the lake, and more than a
dozen hotels were built.
After World War II, however, the lake’s
popularity began to wane. The amusement park was closed in the 1960s.
But recently, the area has seen an
upsurge as a getaway spot. Finta’s Heron Bay was a Parade of Homes site in
1997, and new condominiums and housing lots are popping up.
More than 3,000 residences have been
built around the lake in the past three years, according to the Buckeye Lake
Area Civic Association. Some residents are wary.
"The biggest concern people have
with development here is it’s so hodgepodge," said Peter Myer, a Buckeye
Lake resident and former local zoning-commission member. But Finta said that
he has been planning Snug Harbor for five years, working with government
agencies to ensure that the project doesn’t harm the lake.
In fact, Triglyph’s plan is to create
more than a housing development. Finta likened it, in a way, to Easton. He
said, however, that Snug Harbor will be more of a "working
village."
For example, the retail stores are
expected to serve residents and visitors, not regional shoppers.
Features of the development will be
restaurants, a resort club and spa, and public spaces that could include ball
fields, nature trails and a bird-watching area. In that matter, Snug Harbor
has its sights set on empty nesters and baby boomers who want to have a
second home or simply get away from the city.
An avid boat historian, Finta also would
like to see a boat restoration business and museum at the village center.
Triglyph is in a partnership with
Sullivan Bruck Architects to design Snug Harbor, which will combine coastal
architecture from waterfront towns around the world. Triglyph Construction
has built a cottage on the island and a villa that’s modeled after one that
Finta spotted at Lake Como, Italy.
The construction company has completed
much of the striking, yellow villa, which will include a lighthouse. It
stands at the entrance to Snug Harbor.
"Snug Harbor will have a mixture of
styles," architect Joe Sullivan said. "The only criterion is it all
needs to be waterfront design. We are trying to be as inclusive as we can so
it has this eclectic nature to it.
"We don’t want it to feel like a
development."
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