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Ashley Builders Group breaks ground on Sanctuary Village at former St. Walburg property in Villa Hills


Ashley Builders Group has broken ground on Sanctuary Village, a first of its kind Traditional Neighborhood Development design community in Kenton County.

Construction is set to begin in the Fall of 2020 on the nearly 100-acre property overlooking the Ohio River in Villa Hills, which was sold to Ashley Builders Group in 2017 by the Benedictine Sisters of St. Walburg Monastery to fund their retirement.

Jason Yeager, partner with Ashley Builders Group, said the idea to create something innovative and thoughtful was driven by the Benedictine Sisters.

“We are so grateful the sisters decided to partner with us,” Yeager said. “Our team worked on finding just the right design concept for more than a year. We traveled to communities across the country that utilized this type of development planning.”

Sanctuary Village is located in the Kenton County School District (Turkeyfoot Middle School and Dixie Heights High School) and is adjacent to River Ridge Elementary School. Parochial schools nearby include Villa Madonna Academy and St. Joseph Elementary School in Crescent Springs.

Yeager said the concept of a Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND) focuses on building a sense of community.

“It really redefines how we think about subdivisions,” he said. “Execution is everything — from the pedestrian-oriented design, green spaces, variety of housing types, and town center — we are designing to create and promote community.”

Yaeger says the pedestrian-scale design elements will allow for activities like cycling and walking. Large green spaces will include dedicated, public walking and running trails overlooking the Ohio River. The centerpiece of the community will be the Town Center, featuring a community club, exercise facility, community pool with a river view, a community park, and a lake. Neighborhood-commercial retail uses will be added based on the needs of residents.

The community will include custom and single-family homes, townhomes, and cottages ranging from $300,000 to more than $1 million. “Homes will be built closer to the street with front porches that foster conversations with your neighbors, and garages in the back,” Yeager said.

Two of Northern Kentucky’s nationally recognized homebuilders — Drees Homes and Fischer Homes — have signed on to construct homes in the community.

Featured architecture styles include bungalow, Craftsman, Cape Cod, and neo-traditional.

Each builder has river-view lots available, and the community will also feature a Homeowners Association offering expanded services for low-maintenance living. Yaeger said he hopes the wide range of product diversity in the development will attract families, empty nesters, and young professionals.

Ray Neverovich, division president at Drees Homes, said Drees will premier their high design, neo-traditional floor plans on their homesites next to the community park. Drees also will offer more traditional home styles on various homesites throughout the community.

“We are extremely excited to be part of such a unique and beautiful community in Villa Hills and to work with Ashley Development Group,” Neverovich said.

Fischer Homes will feature designs from their Grand Estate Custom and Masterpiece Collection of homes in the community, according to Jason Finch, Northern Kentucky market president for Fischer Homes.

“Sanctuary Village is an ideal location, and the development concept is consistent with our objective to build quality homes for our customers in a highly desirable area,” Finch said.

Sanctuary Village is located off Buttermilk Pike, just minutes to and from I-75 and I-275, and less than 10 miles from downtown Cincinnati and the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.


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3 Comments

  1. Tiki Warrior says:

    The ground has been broken for months as evidenced by the layers of dirt and dust that has blanketed my house, patio and outdoor furniture. You would think that after all issues with getting a settlement with Defend Villa Hills, that Ashley would want to be a better neighbor. We have gone through an extended period of drought but they will not bring in water tankers to keep the dust to a minimum.

    • Henry Childress says:

      Tiki, are you saying the home you live in now didn’t create any dirt, noise, or typical construction disturbance to the existing people in the areas when your home was built? By every law of physics and reality it is impossible to mitigate all dust on a construction site whether you water it or not. Let them build the houses that are direly needed in our area. We have a local and national housing and affordability crisis because home builders are over-regulated, slowed, or stopped by this logic and cannot build a fraction of the homes that are needed to house human beings. Simple as that.

  2. Trigg kuhn says:

    Wear are the homesites selling for overlooking the city of Ohio. The lot next to 2676 River reach I think)

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