A 5 Minute Lifestyle

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Everything your family needs for a healthy, happy lifestyle is within easy distance of Grow Community. Local merchants and grocers, the library, fine cafes and coffee shops, theaters and museums, parks, health clinics and schools … you can reach it all without ever getting behind the wheel.

We call it the “5-minute lifestyle,” and it’s just one of the features that makes Grow such an attractive choice for homebuyers seeking a simpler, more mindful way of living.

You’ll be amazed by all that’s waiting for you, just beyond your doorstep.
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Tread lightly on the earth, live healthy at Grow Community

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When we set out to design the most sustainable, future-friendly community possible, we knew we were building more than homes. We were creating a whole new way of living, and a model for the world.

We started with the principles of One Planet Living – promoting sustainable, healthy lifestyles through low-impact construction and high-quality materials. Culture, community, equity and economy were our guiding principles, health and happiness our end product.

We haven’t backed down from the challenge. Homes in our first two neighborhoods, the Village and the Grove, have earned national and international acclaim for their thoughtful design and construction. Each neighborhood is designed around vegetable gardens, fruit groves or open spaces, with native plants and vegetation creating natural and inviting places for children and adults to enjoy.

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Grow offers a “five minute lifestyle” where residents can walk/ride/roll to local amenities and urban attractions in Winslow town center, reducing dependency on the automobile. Spacious designs offer room for families, while single-level living options mean owners can age in place in security and comfort.

We’re all about bringing people together – a new community center will provide a space for classes, gatherings and community events, bringing residents and neighbors together throughout the seasons.

Along the way, Grow has become the largest planned solar community in Washington state – with more clean energy-producing rooftop PV systems being added all the time.

As we enter our third and final phase, the Park neighborhood, we’re proud of what we’ve achieved. A healthy community of satisfied residents and, we believe, an inspiration that others can follow for forward-thinking, sustainable urban design.

Visit Grow Community today, and let us share it with you – a new way of living, at one with the future and the world.

National Pollinator Week – June 20-26

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We are celebrating National Pollinator Week – June 20-26. Its a time to celebrate pollinators and spread the word about what we can do to protect them. Learn more about the initiative here:  And here are some things going on locally to bring awareness:

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Grow ‘hits the Easy button’ for sustainability

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It takes a lot of work to make sustainability simple.

But making the choice of a low-impact lifestyle easy for buyers was the goal at Grow Community from the very start.

In an article titled “We Only Have One Planet,” Reserve Magazine explores the history of Washington’s largest planned solar community, and the thoughtful features that have earned it the prestigious One Planet Living certification.

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“We wanted to hit the Easy button for people,” Asani President Greg Lotakis tells the magazine, “so they could get in and just focus on the things we can’t control, which are creating community, enjoying community and enjoying each other.”

Leading elements of Grow’s high-performing homes include rooftop solar arrays, airtight construction and insulation, and nontoxic construction materials, among other low-impact features. Grow homes use 30 to 40 percent less water than a typical Pacific Northwest home, the magazine notes.

It all adds up to a formula for sustainable, intergenerational living. Grow does the hard work, so residents can get on with the fun stuff: living.

“This idea that we can start to create places where generations share space, where elders pass along wisdom, where you have children who are being looked after by friends or grandparents and where young couples or single folks get a chance to live in a community where there’s a mix of support — to us, it’s a recipe for success in the future,” Greg says.

Read the whole story online here.

Construction is apace and sales are brisk at Grow phase 2, the Grove!

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We are excited to report that Salal building solar went live on April 29. It has been a long road to this point, but the building’s rooftop is now producing energy. And there’s more to come – the first round of Elan owners should be seeing solar installed later in May.

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The Woodland homes at the south end of the Grove have taken shape, along with the Tsuga bilding, with completion expected from late June through August.

Sales-wise, our rental building, the Juniper, is now fully reserved. The building should be completed with first move-ins by the end of this month.

Two units remain available in the owner-occupied Salal building – the current model home, and a three-bedroom unit. Inquire within!

Finally: Big news on our Community Center will be coming soon, and permits for our next phase the Park are now in hand. Our construction crews will continue their steady migration south to this final phase very soon.

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French TV Feature – A quest for the greenest residential developments

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French TV came to town last summer looking for the greenest residential developments in the USA, and their quest led them straight to Grow Community.

Over the course of four busy days, Echo-Logis program host Anthony DaSilva and his crew interviewed Grow residents and the folks from our project developer Asani.

Watch the Echo-Logis half-hour feature here.

Even if you don’t speak French – there are no subtitles, Hélas! – the videography of Grow Community and our Bainbridge/Seattle land-and-seascapes is simply stunning. The Echo-Logis crew made extensive use of aerial photography with a small drone, and the footage is well worth seeing – whether or not you live at Grow, you’ll be reminded why you want to live here.

Thanks again to Anthony and his very talented crew for visiting Bainbridge Island and taking the Grow Community story to the globe. We know your storytelling will inform and inspire!

Brokers Open: Thursday April 21, 2016

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Model home and community tours.  Snacks and beverages provided. 

THURSDAY APRIL 21, 10am-1pm

Grow Community’s first neighborhood, the Village, set a new standard for comfortable, sustainable urban living with its cluster of beautifully designed, energy-efficient homes. Now comes the Grove, a new neighborhood of high-quality, sustainable homes around a quiet woodland and orchard of native trees. The garden spaces, solar arrays, and sustainable home features of the Village are here too — this time in a new mix of designs including townhomes and single-level residences for purchase (ONLY 10 HOMES LEFT) or to rent.

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A Bee Brigade is born

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78baad8f-7254-45bb-a8bf-5c22ac5bd1a6Bainbridge Island students are learning to “bee positive” on the environment, thanks to the efforts of local educators and volunteers like Carl Lindbloom.

We noted earlier that Grow Community has signed on to the Pollinator Improvement Plan, an island-wide effort to bolster living and foraging space for bees, birds and other pollinators that are the linchpins of a healthy ecosystem.

Our Grow landscaping boasts pollinator-friendly native plants with a sequential bloom season to provide food and habitat all year for pollinators – from hazelnut in late winter/early spring to Oceanspray in late summer.

f5f3c84e-6b70-4bf7-a256-a56158c635e3Now we’ve even diverted some construction waste to help the cause: cedar scraps and plumbing pipe discards, from which Carl and some very clever students have fashioned 160 “Mason Bee House Kits.”

Un-bee-lievable!

Each kit provides new refuge for Mason bees, so named for their skill at making little mud compartments in their nests.

“Since the construction of the houses required hammering, I enlisted the help of the 7-8 graders to assist the 1-6 graders,” Carl says. “That was very fun to watch those interactions. The older kids took their job very seriously and the younger kids loved it.”

The new Mason Bee Houses have now gone home with the kids, along with instructions that give them everything they need to set up the houses and start raising Mason bees in their own yards.

“Because we draw students from all parts of the island, we have now introduced Mason bees to the same,” Carl says.

Way to go, Carl and Bainbridge Island students in the Pollinator Improvement Plan – our community’s own little Bee Brigade.

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What’s the Grove all about?

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woof3As we welcome our newest residents to the Grove neighborhood, we should pause to reflect on what’s drawing discerning buyers to the latest homes in our award-winning Grow Community.

We promised urban living with nature at every doorstep, and that’s what we’re delivering.

Homeowners in Grove buildings will enjoy close connection to the signature woodland that gives this corner of Grow its name. A mix of native trees and understory will bring the Northwest forest into the very heart of the neighborhood, complementing the fruit trees and gardens thriving elsewhere around the project.

Ultra-efficient home construction, renewable materials and low-impact fixtures promise a healthy lifestyle within each of these 5 Star Built Green homes, while our rooftop solar arrays allow residents to ease their reliance on the grid – and even put power back into it for others to use.

Our generous open spaces and community gardens – inspired by centuries-old European towns, designed around central squares and greens – promote connection and interaction, really putting the “neighbor” in our neighborhoods.

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We put the focus on intergenerational living in the Grove, imagining homes as inviting to a 73 year old as a toddler. Sixty percent of homes will be fully accessible, with convenient single-level living and private elevators from our parking garages that will let residents “age in place” by design. Oh, and about that parking – it’s underground, keeping vehicles off the street and out of sight while letting us preserve so much open space between homes.

Proximity to Winslow’s urban core means local merchants, services and amenities are just steps away along the public paths that radiate out from Grow Community’s neighborhood core.

As the Grove takes final shape and we turn our attention to our third and final neighborhood, the Park (centerpiece: yes, a park), we are proud of what we have accomplished and how our vision has translated in the market.  Most of all we’re delighted for our many new neighbors and friends of Grow Community.

 

Construction Update: New lights, and other highlights

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grove-construction-update2-2016-562x1024Completion of the Salal building has brought some comment about the exterior stair lighting on the north side of the building along Wyatt Way. The present lights are only temporary, put in to allow the building’s first residents to move in safely.

The finished lighting design will be completed within a few weeks. We’re excited about the final look – lighting that’s both functional and subdued – and we think the community will be satisfied as well.

Meanwhile, elsewhere around the Grove:

The Elan building will be completed this month, with new residents moving in. We’re planning a “Solar Social” to introduce these homeowners to Grow Community’s solar options.

The Tsuga roof and windows all be installed in early March. Also completed in the next few weeks: finishing touches on the underground parking. The Salal’s garage elevators are already up and running.

Interior work at the Juniper is well underway and should be complete by mid-April, while the first Woodland Homes are “dried in” and ready for interior work and exterior siding.

Finally, the Grove is becoming a grove. Landscaping progress has been dramatic, with new plantings in areas behind the Elan and elsewhere around our newest neighborhood really taking shape. Expect to see new swaths of green through March – just in time for spring.