Strategically choosing a home
Redefining lifestyle amenities at Hot Springs Village
John Cooper Sr. was a product of the Delta, but he had a love for the tree-covered hills of Arkansas. Born at Earle in 1906, Cooper received a degree in 1927 from the Cumberland School of Law in Lebanon, Tenn. He was practicing law in West Memphis in the years after World War II when he had an idea. Cooper had purchased 400 acres near where Otter Creek runs into the Spring River for a family retreat known as Otter Creek Ranch. But he had a bigger plan in mind. He began buying adjoining property in Sharp and Fulton counties. In the early 1950s, he formed Cherokee Village Development Co. with the goal of selling lots to people in Midwestern states such as Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin.
Gov. Orval Faubus attended the dedication of Cherokee Village in June 1955 and declared it to be “the coming mecca of the Ozarks.”
The concept was indeed a success for Cooper. He eventually built two golf courses, seven lakes, 350 miles of roads, a water
system and three recreation centers at Cherokee Village. Memphis historian Wayne Dowdy writes that the development of Cherokee Village “had a profound impact on Arkansas. The retirement community industry became an integral part of the state’s economy as older Americans who flocked to Cherokee Village transformed the state into one of the most innovative and popular retirement destinations in the United States.”
In the 1960s, Cooper set his sights on Bella Vista in northwest Arkansas, which had a long history as a resort dating back to 1915 when a Presbyterian minister named William Baker dammed Sugar Creek to create a lake for swimming. A contest was held to select the resort’s name, with the winning entry being Bella Vista. Cooper began buying land and dividing it into lots.
During the next 35 years, more than 37,000 lots were sold. By 1987, 16.5 percent of all Benton County tax revenues and 45 percent of property tax revenues for the Bentonville School District were coming from Bella Vista.
The population of Bella Vista soared—2,589 in the 1980 census; 9,093 in the 1990 census; 16,582 in the 2000 census; 26,461 in the 2010 census, and about 30,000 people as the 2020 census begins. In November 2006, residents voted by a two-to-one margin to incorporate it as Arkansas’ newest city. With the explosive growth of northwest Arkansas, Bella Vista can no longer be considered a retirement community. It’s instead a growing municipality.
In 1970, Cooper set his sights on southwest Arkansas as he began developing a large tract of pine forest in Saline and Garland counties into Hot Springs Village. The planned community now covers almost 26,000 acres and is, in essence, the nation’s largest gated community.
“Cooper had been approached separately by two people with the idea of creating a retirement community, state Sen. Bud Canada and Peter D. Joers, the president of the Dierks Coal & Lumber Co.,” Kayla Laxton writes for the Central Arkansas Library System’s Encyclopedia of Arkansas. “After touring the property by air, Cooper realized the potential of the land and immediately bought 20,000 acres. His plan was to create a peaceful retirement community in a natural setting that would offer all modern-day conveniences without the hassle of living in an urbanized city. Unlike his other two communities, Hot Springs Village was created as a gated community in order to provide security for its residents and as an experiment to see if the gated community would result in more residents than the non-gated communities.”
The population grew, though far more slowly than at Bella Vista. Hot Springs Village had 2,083 residents in the 1980 census; 6,361 in the 1990 census; 8,397 in the 2000 census, and 12,807 in the 2010 census. There are about 14,200 residents these days.
In a 1983 interview with the Arkansas Times, Cooper said: “Daddy wanted me to be a doctor, but I didn’t have that kind of mind, and I was in a hurry. I left, then got my law degree, not from a prestigious school but a diploma mill. That was during the Great Depression, and I spent a lot of time around West Memphis representing insurance companies, helping them refinance mortgages, handling other legal problems, just doing whatever came to hand.
“I learned a lot about titles and made valuable contacts in east Arkansas. After a few years, I realized that I didn’t have the kind of legal education that would let me be really competitive in the legal circles. So I concentrated on real estate. … I saw that you never could make very much money practicing law unless you got into sidelines that panned out.”
Cooper was intrigued when he read that someone was retiring every 12 seconds in this country.
“These were the first people who had a secure retirement income, the first generation to get their Social Security,” he said in the 1983 interview. “Here was a whole generation of people who had farmed, worked in industry, just spent their entire lives working. They got ready to retire, and they had their savings and their Social Security to live on. It was a natural, and I knew it.”
Next month, Hot Springs Village will celebrate its 50th anniversary with a Founders’ Day celebration. The anniversary comes at a time when retirement communities that once were based on golf are trying to reinvent themselves. Golf has been declining in popularity in recent years. Fewer retirees want to live by a golf course in a rural setting. They prefer urban areas with amenities such as fine dining, live theater, symphony orchestras and sports events.
In addition to a director of golf, Hot Springs Village now has executives with titles like chief member experience officer, director of placemaking and development, and director of tourism and community affairs.
“My job is to try to keep people happy,” Jamie Caperton, the chief member experience officer, told me over breakfast on a cold morning at the DeSoto Club. “People come to me with their problems, and then I go out and try to fix them.”
Stephanie Heffer, the director of placemaking and development, said she works on everything from architectural controls to the community’s master plan.
Kevin Sexton, the director of tourism and community affairs, has been promoting packages for golfers and others who will come to Hot Springs Village for three days and two nights.
Thomas Heffer, the director of golf, said there is an increased effort to make sure people know that they can play on the nine golf courses at Hot Springs Village.
“People are looking for reasons to get out of places like Chicago for a few days this time of year,” he said. “There’s a great opportunity here for all of us. We need to let golfers know that we’re open for business and wanting them to visit. It’s difficult to get away from that image that you have to own a home here to play our courses. Our prices are competitive.
People just need to go to our website or call us in order to book a tee time.”
In an effort to diversify recreational offerings, 14 pickleball courts have been built. The sport combines elements of tennis, table tennis and badminton. Village officials are also trying to better capitalize on the 12 lakes.
“Our lakes don’t get the pressure of a Lake Hamilton,” Sexton said. “Because of that, they’re more relaxing.”
There’s even an effort to improve and then publicize the 30 miles of trails. Stephanie Heffer said: “Outside our gates, we’re known as a place with a bunch of retirees who golf. There’s just so much more. For instance, we have more than 200 clubs that cover about every interest you can imagine.”
Members of the village’s management team also like to point out that a large number of working parents now call Hot Springs Village home. Almost 1,000 students from inside the gates attend school at Fountain Lake or Jessieville.
There are 34,000 lots at Hot Springs Village but fewer than 8,000 homes.
“We have to reconnect with those families across the country who bought lots years ago and for some reason never built here,” Stephanie Heffer says.
Hot Springs Village has the infrastructure to support 26,000 homes. While that likely will never happen, there’s a goal of adding at least 2,500 homes during the next 20 years. Hot Springs Village officials have been busy going to trade shows in states such as Texas, California and Colorado. The key demographic is those who are now between the ages of 45 and 65. Part of the sales pitch is that Hot Springs Village is less than an hour from the Clinton National Airport in Little Rock.
Rather than being thought of as a golf community, those at Hot Springs Village like to refer to it as an “active lifestyle community.” The Hot Springs Village mission statement says: “In Hot Springs Village, our mission is to provide opportunities and lifestyle choices, from the most vibrant to the peaceful and serene, for all property owners and visitors alike.”
About 75 percent of residents are age 60 and above. The top five markets for residents are Arkansas, Texas, Illinois, Kansas and Oklahoma. Future target areas include California and Colorado, where residents can receive a premium for selling their current homes.
Cooper, who died in 1998, served as president and chairman of the board of what became Cooper Communities until 1968 when his son took over. Cooper remained active in the company, though, until 1989 and served as president of the National Land Council and the National Association of Community Developers. Cooper had a keen understanding of people who had been raised poor during the Great Depression before climbing into the middle class. He guessed correctly that thousands of them would want to retire in places where the cost of living was low and the winters weren’t as harsh.
The 1960s and 1970s were the boom period for selling lots. Cooper’s Arkansas retirement developments advertised free vacations, and Cooper became a pioneer of direct-mail marketing. Couples from cities across the Midwest came south to Arkansas and spent several days enjoying the amenities in exchange for participating in what was called a tour with a real estate agent. Those tours were actually intense sales pitches like something out of the David Mamet play Glengarry Glen Ross. High school teachers and coaches often would spend their summers as sales associates. The good ones could earn more money in three months of selling lots than they had earned in nine months of teaching.
“The land on which Hot Springs Village was developed was known as the dark corner of Garland County on account of its lawless reputation,” Laxton writes. “Before 1873, the Hot Springs Village area was known as Marble Township and was located in Saline County. When Garland County was formed in 1873, the township was split in half. Although this area contained a small population, several communities developed, driven mostly by farmers in Marble Township. Heavily populated with moonshiners and active members of the Ku Klux Klan, this township became a place many settlers avoided.”
Cooper announced his plans for the land during a January 1970 meeting of what’s now the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. Ground was broken in February of that year.
“Cooper’s plans for the progression of Hot Springs Village were to provide for paved streets, electricity, water supply, trash service, sewage disposal and police and fire security,” Laxton writes. “Along with police protection, Cooper implemented gate security at the five gated entrances surrounding Hot Springs Village. The five gates were not approved until 1995. Secondary gates were added as a measure of security when more roads began to be constructed throughout the village.”