By Ruth Wood-Steed
When entering WingHaven®,
you see a typical, sprawling, densely populated, suburban residential
development. As you meander through the community, though, you
notice some differences from the average community. Someone
is walking on a hiking trail and boardwalk alongside its winding
wetlands and woods. Parkways, containing playground equipment,
divide the streets, giving residents common green space (which
they don’t have to maintain) and nearby places for their children
to play.
You see a quaint town center area, with neighborhood grocery
store and delicatessen, ice cream parlor, pub and public library.
Commercial offices, as well as doctors, dentists, restaurants
and schools, all within walking or biking distance, round out
the offerings. WingHaven is, in many ways, an intersection of
all elements of life, what McEagle Properties LLC calls LifeWorks®:
live, learn, work, play and pray.
When McEagle, along with their partners Fred Weber Inc. and
McBride and Son Homes, purchased the first piece of property
for the development in 1997, Paul McKee and Bill Laskowsky,
chairman and chief development officer respectively, had a vision
that far surpassed developing just another residential community.
Their vision, based on LifeWorks, called for doing things a
little differently. They wanted to incorporate living, learning,
working, playing and praying opportunities into the development,
so that the different elements would sustain one another. They
were convinced that residents would have a greater sense of
community with the different elements nearby rather than their
requiring long commutes.
Calling to mind new town pioneer James Rouse’s Columbia, Md.,
before acting on their vision, though, they had to convince
local government officials that changing zoning laws, so that
commercial and residential properties could exist side by side,
would be good for the community and that businesses and private
citizens would be amenable to the change. They succeeded. Among
their early goals was bringing a large business into WingHaven.
They partnered with the City of O’Fallon, St. Charles County,
the RCGA and the State to convince MasterCard to select WingHaven
for its Global Technology and Operations (GTO) Headquarters.
“We can’t do a development like this without a partnership with
government,” says McKee.
Laskowsky adds, “There also has to be an alignment of values
between government, the company and us.” Together, McEagle and
appropriate governmental and community organizations convinced
MasterCard that the symbiotic relationship between that firm
and its jobs, and the infrastructure and community that would
become WingHaven, would be more sustainable than either would
individually. Bringing MasterCard added a major source of jobs
for prospective residents, as well as a source of residents
for the community.
Since that time, McEagle has transformed 1,100 acres of former
St. Charles County farmland into a vibrant community containing
approximately five percent of O’Fallon’s population and producing
about 15 percent of its revenue. The firm has intentionally
included and integrated all price points at WingHaven, placing
four-family flats by $450,000 homes. McKee says they wanted
a community where a young college graduate could move into an
apartment, get married and move into a starter home a few years
later, then to a larger home as family size grows, and, when
the kids have left, step back into a smaller one.
Their plan has worked. McKee and Laskowsky are pleased to see
the generational stream they envisioned occurring. McKee has
spoken with people who have moved up once or twice—and others
who are interested in stepping back, yet want to remain in the
community—all within the 10 years WingHaven has been in existence.
Laskowsky says sales have been steady from the beginning, leaving
only about 10 vacant homes and 80 acres of undeveloped property
today.
Among the community’s final residential components, construction
will begin soon on Freedom Homes, single-family homes adjacent
to the soon-to-be-completed Park Place, a senior living community
containing both independent and assisted living apartments.
McKee says: “We’ve learned. We didn’t think about Freedom Homes
(in the beginning), but will soon have 32 units. They will be
age-restricted. The residents who live in them can swim, exercise
and use the services of Park Place. When they want, or need,
to move into Park Place, then we’ll buy their home back.”
What is in WingHaven’s future? Well, a little more residential
and commercial development, and completion of a 178-acre park,
the Dardenne Greenway at BaratHaven, which separates WingHaven
from BaratHaven, another McEagle LifeWorks development that
sits to WingHaven’s southeast. McEagle has partnered with the
Great Rivers Greenway District in creating the parks.
But McKee sees WingHaven as a vibrant, ever-evolving community,
one melded through interaction encouraged by its pedestrian
and biking opportunities as well as planned social and cultural
activities. McKee says, “We build to build community, not just
to sell.” A quick look at their Website, www.experiencewinghaven.com,
shows a little of what he’s talking about. Art fairs, chili
cookoffs, fireworks, a community garden—even Trova sculptures,
can be found within WingHaven’s white-fenced borders. McEagle
set the mechanisms in place for these to occur, but residents
have taken off with new ideas, and have even expanded on them.
McKee and Laskowsky are enthusiastic about how well WingHaven
has turned out; they are also optimistic about the St. Louis
area’s opportunities for economic development. In fact, they
are trying to diversify throughout the greater St. Louis area,
as evidenced by developments, including LifeWorks developments
in Sunset Hills and BaratHaven in Missouri, and in Shiloh, Ill.,
as well as the purchase of property in North St. Louis to revitalize
this inner city area. This diversification positions them better
to bring in businesses. “If there’s a job to be won or business
to be attracted, we’re going to be in play for it,” says McKee.
But as was the case in O’Fallon, they recognize the need to
work with local governments and the region’s economic development
organizations, in order to align values, business types and
architectural styles with those of the existing community. They
turned down a prospective business for WingHaven because, McKee
says: “They weren’t what WingHaven’s about. We’re willing to
invest on the long haul.”
McEagle and WingHaven both appear to be here for the long haul,
improving the greater St. Louis area’s economic base and its
residential environment.
