The courses feature five tee boxes at each hole to allow playability for a wide variety of golfers. Elevated tees permit inspiring views of the surrounding mountains and ever-changing sky. The golf course design at Las Campanas is a significant departure from the concepts Jack has employed in the past. A new, gentler approach is coupled to his sensitivity for preserving the character of the land.

Sitting at an elevation of nearly 7,000 feet, the views at Las Campanas are spectacular, with snowcapped mountains, pinon pines, juniper trees and gently rolling hills. And from spring through fall, fields of yellow, blue and purple wildflowers carpet the landscape. The courses are the centerpiece of a private, 4,700-acre residential development that is located just 10 miles from the downtown Plaza of Santa Fe, which is regarded as the country’s third largest art markets with more than 200 galleries lining the streets.

For more information and great photos, visit the Nicklaus design website here.

Memberships at Las Campanas are not limited to Las Campanas property owners.  For the details of these memberships and the process to join contact Pam Franco, Director of Member Services at Las Campanas.  Her phone number is 505-995-3544.

Here are the membership options at Las Campanas:

The Equity Social Membership (includes everything except golf)
Initiation Fee: $22,000 Club dues are $575 per month

The Equity Club Membership (includes limited golf)
Initiation Fee: $25,000 Club dues are $575 per month

The Equity Golf Membership (includes full golf privileges)
Initiation Fee: $30,000 Club dues are $1,150 per month.
 

For more information about Real Estate in Santa Fe please contact us.

 Looking to sell your Las Campanas Home? Welcome to the top ranked website for Homes in Las Campanas. We are here to provide you and your home the attention you deserve.

When you are ready to get serious about selling your home contact us.

Dear Fellow Member:
As you know, your Board has been developing a strategic plan that will provide the framework for the growth and vitality of our Club in the years ahead. We presented an update of our progress to those member who braved the cold here in Santa Fe and attended the December 29 meeting.
For those of you who were not able to join us, below is a summary of what I consider to be the major points that were discussed.
 
Strategic Planning Update: December 29, 2010
The Club at Las Campanas

The Member-Focused Process
Strategic planning is a long, complex and on-going process. This process, however, is focused at every stage on what you – our member – want The Club at Las Campanas to be. Your Board has a good understanding of your “wants,” based on the various focus groups many of you participated in and on the member survey, which generated a high and statistically significant level of response.
To summarize what you told us:
1. You want a private club with a warm, comfortable and friendly “personality.”
2. You want amenities at the high level you currently enjoy.
3. You want further improvements in service levels throughout our various activities.
4. You want dues at no higher than current levels and would prefer lower dues.
5. You want your Club to operate in a fiscally responsible manner.
6. You believe that your Club’s facilities and amenities are a major strength, as is our debt-free status.
7. As for major weaknesses, you cite our overall membership level, current attrition trends and Board communications.
Strategic Priorities
During the strategic planning process—and as a direct result of what members told us – your Board established four priorities to promote an overall positive experience at our Club:

1. Member retention and acquisition,
2. Continuing financial stability,
3. Secure and adequate irrigation for the golf courses, and
4. Improved communications and Board transparency.
Membership Growth
Your Board recognizes that, while we are involved in a lot of very important activities at the Club, nothing is more important than growing our membership – by recruiting new people and by retaining existing members. As a result, we are committed to aggressive actions that will help us achieve the goals outlined in “Pathway to 1200,” which we discussed in a December 21 email to you. 

Our long-term objective is to cap membership at 1200 – 750 full golf memberships and 450 other memberships.  We currently are at 718 total dues-paying members. We must have your active support and participation in this critical and on-going effort, and will inform you of the initiatives we intend to implement and your role in them. We all should remember that there is and always will be a direct correlation between membership levels and dues levels.

Golf Course Irrigation
As you know from earlier communications, we have made substantial progress in water conservation by installing more advanced sprinkler heads, improving irrigation practices and reducing the irrigated “footprint’ of the courses.  The goal of these measures is to reduce irrigation water consumption by 30 percent in 2011, compared to the wasteful and counter-productive practices of prior ownership. Plus, our grass turf actually has a healthier root system and playing conditions already have improved.

Despite these important gains in conservation, we still need additional water for course irrigation.  We have been working along two parallel paths to ensure adequate water access now and well into the future.

Under one plan, we’ve been working with The City of Santa Fe to expand our current purchase agreement (450 acre-feet of effluent annually) that runs through 2027. Instead of providing additional effluent, however, The City has agreed to continue providing sufficient raw water to meet our additional irrigation needs through the end of December 2012. Of course, our current agreement for effluent remains unchanged.

We also have been simultaneously implementing a second plan to provide for our irrigation needs for 2013 and beyond – building our own pipeline to access river water from the Buckman Direct Diversion project. We recently contracted for the initial phase of engineering design, including updated cost estimates. We believe we can build this pipeline in a timely and cost-effective manner, using a $1.45 million existing commitment from OMR, with the balance coming from our existing reserves or from Club financing. We do not believe that dues increases or assessments will be required for this critical project.

Financial Stability
Your Club continues to operate in a fiscally responsible manner. The budget adopted for 2010 was the first one for our Club to be based on detailed revenue and cost targets, and on stringent fiscal controls and personal accountability. This budget reflected the loss of about $3 million in subsidies that had been provided in prior years by the developer and the need to fund $750,000 for capital improvements in 2010 (compared to virtually nothing in the two prior years).
We were on-target to finish 2010 about $100,000 under budget.  However, your Board decided in November that it would be prudent to book a 100 percent reserve for bad debt – primarily dues and other member charges totaling roughly $200,000 still owed to us by former members. As a result of this decision, we may exceed our 2010 budget by about $100,000. If we were to recover half of this bad debt (and we believe that to be a reasonable expectation), our financial performance in 2010 would again be on-target.

The budget we adopted for 2011 is similarly conservative and fiscally responsible. It is based on total membership that is 9 percent lower than current levels—and we certainly are committed to doing better than this budget assumption in terms of membership levels.  Our 2011 budget also reflects $700,000 for further capital improvements, as well as prudent “rainy-day” reserves.

Improved Communications
Your Board recognizes that we need to do a better job in this area, and we hope that recent communications – including the December 29 update and this meeting summary – reflect our commitment to improve.

We welcome your comments on the strategic plan and on any other issues that should be addressed. We also welcome your attendance at Board meetings (except, of course, for executive sessions).  Here are the dates for meetings currently scheduled for 2011:
January 24
February 21
March 31
April 25
May 23
June 20
July 18
Our meetings generally begin at The Club 2 pm, but that may change depending on specific agenda items.  Please check the Club member website for specific times.  Minutes of prior meetings also will be posted on the member website after they are approved.

Phil George
Board President

After numerous rumors, signs, and opinions on the financial stability of the development,  the original developer, Lyle Anderson real estate holdings, was acquired by the Bank of Scotland. Lyle Anderson had multiple developments, and apparently they had bitten off more than they could chew. When the bank of Scotland took over changes were made immediately, one of which was to furlough all services that Las Campanas has to offer.  Overnight all amenities (except basic upkeep of the equestrian center) were shut down indefinitely, sending significant ripples through the community. Fortunately, 1) The owners and members of the club took immediate actions, and 2) the “shut down” only lasted two weeks.

This action prompted an accelerated process to transfer the ownership of The Club from the bank to the residents, which was supposed to happen eventually anyway.  And after about a year of negotiations, an agreement has now been reached.  As of Wednesday of this past week (May 5th), the owners are now in control, and, hopefully, the Club will continue to thrive and provide the world class amenities that the residents are accustomed to (and have paid for).

We’re happy to see the members taking control of the club, and hope to watch the Las Campanas community continue to thrive and grow.

Contact Matt Desmond and Ryan Bolton

From the Santa Fe New Mexican :

The Club at Las Campanas has named James K. Muldowney as general manager and chief operating officer, effective Feb. 15.

The private club, which is undergoing a revival since a temporary shutdown in September, was developed as part of the housing subdivision northwest of Santa Fe.

Muldowney, 56, most recently served as executive placement partner with Master Club Advisors, a national private club management consulting and executive placement firm. The firm had been retained in October to help The Club at Las Campanas in its transition from a developer-owned club to one owned and controlled by its members.

An announcement said Muldowney “will be responsible for overall management of golf, tennis, equestrian, fitness/spa and dining operations; for staff selection and training; and for the continuing growth and improvement of all Club services and activities.”

Contact us for more information, including details statistics about Las Campanas.

Also chack out our website HomesinLasCampanas.com

We get asked that question a lot at here at HomesinSantaFeNM.com. And our most honest answer is “We’re not sure”. However, we are also positive that Las Campanas will recover and will remain a highly desirable place to live in the Santa Fe area.  With unparalled views and amenities, Las Campanas offers what no other Santa Fe subdivision does. The community will not only survive, it will also continue to thrive and prosper.

The Santa Fe New Mexican published the following article in Today’s (December 27th, 2009) newspaper.  It’s an interesting read, and it outlines the challenges that Las Campanas has faced. 

ARTICLE

Life isn’t supposed to be so trying at Las Campanas.

For nearly 20 years, the gated enclave west of the city limits has represented the pinnacle of genteel country living in Santa Fe. Its two Jack Nicklaus-designed golf courses, soaring clubhouse, 20,000 square-foot spa and baronial equestrian center, nicknamed “the horse Hyatt,” set it apart from every other affluent neighborhood in town.

But with the developer now in default, nearly one-fourth of the land still unsold and a looming bill for a multimillion-dollar water system, Las Campanas is in the midst of a troubled transition, its fate now in the hands of residents whose confidence has been shaken by recent events and who are being asked for the first time to shoulder the entire cost of the development’s signature services and amenities.

“We are in a challenging new era, no question about it,” said Bob Buddendorf, a retired Dallas business executive who chairs the committee of residents that is assuming control of The Club at Las Campanas, which includes the golf courses, the clubhouse, food services, the spa and the equestrian center.

Heavily subsidized by the developer, Las Campanas has been struggling to find its own footing and reclaim its reputation as having one of the best clubs in the Southwest, said Mark Silbert, who is working with Buddendorf. After developer Lyle Anderson lost control to Lloyd’s Banking Group in 2008, Silbert said, key personnel were let go, the quality of the food service slipped and building maintenance was deferred. The sale of the club to its members, originally scheduled for 2011, was advanced to stop “the attrition of members,” said Silbert, a retired Exxon oceanographic engineer who moved to Las Campanas from Houston three years ago.

Buddendorf and Silbert believe that sales of both land and homes will pick up as the recession eases, but other forces may be at work.

“Las Campanas introduced a new market segment to Santa Fe that was not being served. The question now is whether the depth of that segment has been plumbed,” said former Santa Fean Christopher Lienberger, a land-use consultant and scholar who chaired a commission involved with planning the Santa Fe Railyard and whose firm once counted Las Campanas among its clients.

Lienberger, who is a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., believes that, nationally, the market for exurban development like Las Campanas has been saturated. For all of its amenities, Lienberger said, “Las Campanas represents a prettier form of sprawl. … The demand has shifted back toward a preference for close-in, walkable urban space.”

Lifestyle in jeopardy

Spread across 4,700 acres of high desert, with telescopic views of the Jemez and Sangre de Cristo mountains, Las Campanas began selling lots in 1992. It quickly became the top selling luxury golf development in the country. However, by 2003, well before the current recession, lot sales at Las Campanas began to slow. Of 1,700 parcels, about 400 remain unsold.

A new era dawned at Las Campanas this fall with the announcement of a jolting 50 percent hike in monthly club dues. The increase was necessary, said Buddendorf, after the developer stopped paying about $2.5 million a year to maintain The Club at Las Campanas.

The loss of that annual subsidy led to a temporary shutdown of the club in September, the furloughing of 178 employees, and the sobering realization that if resident and nonresident members did not step in, the future of Las Campanas, or at least of its lifestyle, could be in jeopardy.

“The price premium Las Campanas has enjoyed is clearly tied to the reputation and viability of its amenities,” said Lienberger. “Whatever can be done to maintain them is a smart idea, whether it means raising fees or cutting costs.”

Club membership has fallen by about 15 percent with more than 100 memberships up for sale. An auction is planned for early next year, with the bidding tentatively set to start around $30,000 for golf memberships, which previously sold for $90,000. The bidding for social memberships, which exclude golf privileges, could start at $20,000, a 60 percent discount from their customary price.

Club members don’t have to own property at Las Campanas. Nor does the price of property necessarily include the cost of a membership, although it often does.

Image problem

The average sale price of a house has also fallen by 20 percent over the past year to just over $1 million. Prices did not fall as hard as they did in Tesuque, for example, but the rate of decline was steeper than in the city’s pricey northeast foothills.

Las Campanas is still doing its part to hold up the high end. One home on Mustang Mesa is going for just under $5 million. Another nearby estate, featuring a 12,000 square-foot house on 2 acres, is on the market for $8.2 million.

At the other end of the spectrum, you can find a 1,900-square-foot, three-bedroom house for $440,000, less than the amount owed on its existing mortgage, according to the real estate agent who represents it. Known as a “short sale,” the listing is a sign of the times. Buddendorf worries that it also may reflect a negative perception fostered by Las Campanas’ recent troubles. “We clearly need to alter that perception,” he said.

Las Campanas has struggled with an image problem almost from the outset. Fairly or unfairly, it has been branded as a wealthy wastrel, especially when it comes to water use. In 2002, in the midst of a drought, the city of Santa Fe filed a lawsuit to compel Las Campanas to abide by city water-use restrictions. Located outside the city, Las Campanas nonetheless took its water from one of the city’s main sources of supply, the Buckman well field, which was being drawn down at an unsustainable rate.

The fact that Las Campanas was using Buckman water to irrigate its golf courses during a drought was particularly irksome to city residents who were forced to cut back on household consumption.

Las Campanas agreed to abide by municipal water-use restrictions as part of a settlement of the lawsuit. But this past fall, the two sides were back at the negotiating table after Las Campanas scaled back its role in a partnership with the city and county to build a $200 million project to replace the Buckman supply with surface flow from the Rio Grande.

With the developer no longer able to participate in the project, Buddendorf and other residents were left to figure out how to pay the $4 million cost of a pipeline that will convey river water to their two golf courses. And as it scales back its investment in the Buckman Direct Diversion project, Las Campanas is again on the defensive as it seeks to assure rate payers elsewhere that they won’t be footing the bill for any of the development’s water.

“Are we paying for the sins of the developer?” mused Mark Silbert during a recent interview. “We didn’t get what the developer promised — a stand-alone water treatment plant that would have made us independent of the city and county. And we’re short $4 million.”

‘Epitome of divide’

Others say the years of wrangling over water masked a deeper resentment of Las Campanas and other gated enclaves that sprung up about the same time. Such developments were seen as an affront to a cherished image of Santa Fe as a place largely without class and ethnic distinctions, where wealth was camouflaged behind crumbling adobe walls.

“Las Campanas marked the beginning of the differentiation between rich and poor in this town,” said attorney Owen Lopez, the executive director of the nonprofit McCune Foundation, who has lived in Santa Fe since the 1960s.

“When we moved here, we lived on Otero Street across the arroyo from our landlady,” he recalled. “In those days, mansions were next door to hovels. The rich didn’t live behind walls with pass codes to get in.”

Yet Lopez himself was not immune to the appeal of Las Campanas. “I’m a big golfer. I have a lot of friends with places out there,” he said. “At one point, I told my wife we could get a deal on a house on the golf course. She said: ‘Are you nuts?’ That was the end of it.”

Lienberger has a similar take on Las Campanas. He compared Santa Fe’s demographic profile to a camel with two humps, one bulging with older, upper-middle-class Anglos and the other with a younger, poorer Hispanic populace. “Las Campanas became the epitome of that divide,” he said.

The last census illustrated his point. In 2000, the city’s median household age was 41, its median income $48,000. The citywide population was 49 percent Hispanic. At Las Campanas, where the population was split between two census tracts, the median age was about 55. The median household income was well over $100,000, and the population was 12 percent Hispanic.

The 2010 census may paint a different picture: As home prices come down at Las Campanas, there is likely to be more diversity among its residents.

“We have a growing segment of moms, dads and kids,” said Rosa Silbert, Mark’s wife, who heads a committee that is working on strategies to market Club memberships. “We’ve instituted junior programs in golf, tennis and equestrian. I’d say 20 percent of our memberships are young families. I think you’ll find that things are changing, that we’re more a reflection of the city.”

And yet it’s hard to shake the sense that Las Campanas is Santa Fe on steroids. It’s an impression reinforced by the mammoth vigas atop the great hall of the clubhouse, by the cavernous “horse Hilton” that provides 90 room-sized stalls for its tenants, at least one of which is valued at $100,000, and by the volume of water needed to sustain the golf courses — enough to supply more than 2,000 families.

Most of that water is effluent or gray water and not potable. But in the arid Southwest, even the demand for effluent is growing. As recycling technology improves, the potential for converting effluent into drinkable water is becoming a reality. In New Mexico, in the meantime, gray water nourishes farm fields and replenishes rivers and acequias. At Las Campanas, the golf course water serves the seasonal wants of a part-time community. “The golf courses are underutilized,” Buddendorf conceded.

In fact, many of the 700 homes are empty much of the time. Buddendorf and Silbert estimated that about half of Las Campanas residents live there year-round. During the winter months, the empty golf courses blend in with the surrounding landscape that lends Las Campanas its pastoral charm.

Charitable works

Many residents work hard to dispel the image of their community as a haven of carefree consumption in a poor state. Las Campanas every year opens its coffers to the disadvantaged and its gates to people with disabilities. Its Las Campadres program offers free riding, swimming and art lessons, and its community fund has contributed $18,000 to $20,000 annually to local nonprofits for the past few years.

“A number of our members serve on the boards of the opera, the Lensic and the Santa Fe Community Foundation,” Buddendorf said. “I think our efforts have made a difference in terms of how we are perceived by people in Santa Fe.”

But the good works have also relied on the deep pockets of the developer who donated $50,000 a year to the community fund. Those contributions won’t continue, said Buddendorf, unless The Club at Las Campanas raises the money on its own.

Whether residents will agree to raise their contributions along with their club dues is an open question, Buddendorf said.

“Las Campanas has played a significant role in this community, and I don’t think anybody wants to see it reduced. But the issue is now up to the members, and the key to the future is building membership.”

Frank Clifford | For The New Mexican

See Full Listing Information Here

The range is from a quarter acre to over 5 acres, averaging about 1.5 acres. The prevailing architectural styles are Pueblo Revival and Territorial with variations that expand the range from contemporary to western rustic to Mediterranean influence. One story homes are the norm with flat rooves that allow for positive pitch for drainagage. The flexibility of the design guidelines allows for your personal expression.

The Estancias at Las Campanas is an area where the design guidelines have been expanded to include log homes, pitched roofs and second stories. Here the topography with its unlimited views and canyon vistas over looks open federal land and slopes gently to the Rio Grande.

Surrounded by adobe walls reminiscent of the old East Side of Santa Fe, Club Estates enjoys a superb location within walking distance of the Clubhouse and Spa and Tennis Center.

Directly across from the Spa and Tennis Center are the 12 homesites of Silver Mesa sited on 3 cul de sacs. Here semi custom homes built by Roger Hunter for Senterra Corp. are available for purchase, several sitting high above the golf course.

Lining the golf course, the Club Casitas are the ultimate in lock and leave convenience, being the closest homes to the Clubhouse. They range from 2100 square feet to 3665 square feet and all offer golf course and mountain views, with some overlooking the spectacular lake between the two 18 finishing holes. All feature outdoor portals with fireplaces for enjoying the serene landscape.

High atop Trailhead Dr. with magnificent views of both golf course and mountain ranages sit The Pueblos, 37 homes surrounding a park and behind their own gate. They vary from aproximately 2800 square feet to 4200 square feet in size, some featuring guest houses.

Across Trailhead Dr. is Park Estates which isby golf course and centered by a park. Lot sizes range from .6 acres to 1.85 acre homesites which are suitable for custom building. Resale homes are also available for purchase here.

The Terrazas, developed by Westman- Browning and built by Tierra Concepts. They range in size from 2390 square feet to just over 2500 square feet. Offering a variety of views from golf course, to open land, all have a mountain backdrop and enjoy a convenient location close to the core of the community and its amenities.

Aptly named, the Ranch Estates is a unique enclave bordered by ranch land and incorporating the Equestrian Center. Here 27 lots are zoned to include a home, guest house and barn to accomodate two horses. An interior trail connects each homesite to the Equestrian Center and the main trail to the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) which afford you 68,000 acres of riding terrain.

Surrounded by golf course, Los Santeros features a variety of lot sizes and home sizes from large estate homes to smaller patio homes. Neighborhoods with the area include the Villas, Puertas, Ventanas, and Las Melodias.

The remaining neighborhoods are called Estates and are identified by numbers corresponding to the order of their development. Here existing and undeveloped homesites are situated behind gates and offer a variety of topography and views.  Home sizes must be a minimum of 2500 square feet but can be as large as the developable area will allow. Guest houses are permissible.

http://homesinsantafenm.com/listing/906041/