BY SAUNDRA AMRHEIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LIBERTY TOWNSHIP -- One of the Tristate's best-kept secrets could be throwing a party for about 100,000 people next summer.
Liberty Township has been chosen by a committee for the Home Builders Association of Greater Cincinnati to host the 1999 Homearama.
The decision won't be final until the association's board members vote on the recommendation June 4.
It would be the first Homearama in Liberty Township since the association began the tours of upscale homes 37 years ago.
If the site in Liberty Township's Four Bridges subdivision is chosen, it would beat out two spots considered in Clermont County, said Elda Marshall, the association's executive director.
The organization's choice of Liberty Township would both reflect and fuel rapid development in the area. "We try to go into up-and-coming areas," Ms. Marshall said. "We want the builders to be able to market their homes."
Once the board picks a site, developers will prepare it for the association's builders -- who bid on lots through a lottery. Builders and decorators will then construct and prepare homes for public tours in June 1999, she said.
In two weeks, about 100,000 people pass through the homes on display, she said.
At this year's Homearama site at Mason's Heritage Club, nine of the 11 homes already are sold. The tour runs June 13-28. The average price is $678,000.
Bob Rhein and Ken Campbell, who developed Heritage Club, will develop Four Bridges, just west of Heritage on Butler-Warren Road and north of Hamilton-Mason Road.
The 18 homes on display would range from $450,000 to $650,000 and sit along an 18-hole golf course, said Alex Tarasenko, president of the Heritage Land Co., the owner and developer of Four Bridges. The entire future subdivision is to include 434 single-family homes ranging from $240,000 to $650,000; 266 luxury apartments renting between $800 and $1,000 a month; and 180 townhomes selling for $175,000 to $250,000.
The community also will have a clubhouse, restaurant, sports facility with tennis courts and a swimming pool, he said.
Developers were attracted to Liberty Township because of its easy access to major highways and the strength of the Lakota Local School District, he said.
"The exposure drawing people to the site gives us the opportunity to explain to them the benefits of living in Four Bridges and living in the region," Mr. Tarasenko said.
