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Coconut Cove's Prototype Home

Our two grown daughters and their husbands helped us build a retirement home on one of our parcels of land near Hopetown on Elbow Cay. We finished construction on our three bedroom beach villa just three years ago and, except when we are there for two or three weeks in the summer and for a couple of slack months in the fall, our home has proven to be extremely popular in the highly competitive Abaco home rental market ... it has been rented out solidly for at least thirty weeks of the year!

Perfect for entertaining, or just spending quiet time watching the clouds and gulls go whisking by, our home has proved to be the perfect "market and usability test" for our planned development of Coconut Cove. Should you decide to visit our property and see first-hand what our web pages are all about, we invite you to inspect our home on Elbow. Of course if the home is occupied, you'll probably have to limit your viewing to the exterior ... but since most of our renters are quite friendly and accommodating, you might even be invited in for dinner!

A Unique Development Philosophy

The Cove's five acre hillside location is especially suited for multiple free-standing dwellings and has room for all the other amenities which would be necessary for a small scale development to be self-contained and successful. Hence, to take advantage of this untapped potential, the idea came to mind of sharing the ownership, so to speak, with other like-minded, island-loving people. We would then be able to utilize this unique property in a special way that could not otherwise be possible.

This past summer (1998), we removed only enough of the least desirable trees (Poisonwood, Scrub Pine and several other varieties of "almost-weeds" vegetation) to allow a topographical survey to be made and provide us with a spectacular hilltop view of the Sea of Abaco and the nearby islands of Guana Cay, Scotland Cay, and Man-O-War. Elbow Cay, where the settlement of Hopetown and its candy striped lighthouse are located, is just around the corner.

We then called in an experienced landscape architect, who has retired to Abaco, to help us determine how to best utilize the property for multiple family use maintaining as much of the natural lay of the land and vegetation as possible. We did not want a typical condominium arrangement sharing common walls and looking like an apartment building. We wanted each unit to be separate with ample space between for vegetation, etc. The landscape architect very systematically determined how many houses could adequately be situated on the hillside to provide access to the prevailing southeastern trade winds and the most optimum view of the Sea of Abaco and still retain a desirable degree of privacy and detachment from the other homes.

Home Sizes and Rental Values

We have accomplished all of this by making the units two-story in a two bedroom 800 sq. ft. per floor arrangement or two (or three) bedrooms in a 1,000 sq. ft. per floor configuration. A three and a four bedroom, 1,200 sq. ft. per floor model is being considered as well. As a result of the vertical home planning, there is room at Coconut Cove for nine uniquely private homes, one of which we will keep for ourselves.

We are looking for eight other parties to make up our little community. Based on our experience with our Elbow Cay "Coconut Cove Prototype Home", we feel, as do the local real estate sales and rental agents, that there will be ample opportunities for the owners to offer vacation rentals should they so desire.