Well clearly there are no flies on some of you out there, especially the two who posted the correct response to my geography quiz. Yes, the red clay and construction featured on Monday’s post are indeed snaps of the rapidly metamorphosing landscape of Tryon Equestrian Properties, aka Sr. B’s new dog and pony show (emphasis on pony). If Sr. B. has learned one thing in his Welly World dealings, it’s this: if you get the green light for a development that just might rub some locals the wrong way, you put the pedal to the metal before some Jacobsian villain sweeps onto the scene and throws a wet blanket over your vision of grandeur. That place is going up lickety split.
From what I’ve heard, not having ventured any farther into North Carolina than the adorable rocking chairs in Charlotte’s airport, Polk County is as pastoral as Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony. Like all developers, Sr. B. is challenging the locals to take sides for or ‘agin’. Economically stagnant (Sr. B and his partner Roger Smith scooped up the failed golf resort for a mere 11 mil when the golf dreams ran aground), the region is clearly in need of some action when it comes to jobs and the immigration of dollars. But of course if you are a wealthy southern belle who cherishes the quietude of your back 400, the arrival of Sr. B. and his GRAND PLAN may not be quite your cup of iced tea.
I have zero personal interest in whether Polk County yields up millions or millstones for Sr. B. But I do tend to feel some sympathy for the folks who like the place just the way it is (or was last year). Because one thing is fo’ sho’. It ain’t never going to be the same again.
Sr. B. has achieved a firm grip on the first dictum of world domination: that it begins in your own backyard. What? You think I exaggerate? Maybe just a little, but maybe not as much as you think. Sr. B. has already proven to us that for him it’s impossible to have too much of a good thing – or a so-so thing, or even a bad thing.
Do we need any more horse shows? Apparently we do, at least according to Sr. B. It’s a ‘build it and they will come’ approach to growing your business, and frankly – like it or not – I think he’s done a pretty crack up job in the growth department.
