Want to live near shopping, parks and a school? Chatham Park homes are on the market.

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Families looking for a simpler life, where they can walk to downtown shops, a park and school, will have another option when Chatham Park’s first homes go on the market this month.

Preston Development Co. broke ground Wednesday on The Cottages, a 30-home neighborhood with prices starting in the low $200s.

The one- and two-story homes will be 828 to 1,397 square feet and developed in partnership with Fresh Paint by Garman Homes. They will be built near Thompson Street, roughly a mile east of the downtown Pittsboro traffic circle.

The Cottages are the first of 500 homesites, featuring townhomes, cottages, and single-family and custom homes, planned for The Vineyards — the first of five villages that will be built over the next three decades in the 7,100-acre Chatham Park development.

At full buildout, Chatham Park could add 22,000 homes and 60,000 people to Pittsboro, now home to just over 4,200 people.

The idea is for each village to be a nearly self-contained community, with schools, fire and police stations and grocery stores, Tim Smith, co-founder of Preston Development, said in a previous interview with The News & Observer.

The Cottages reflect a trend toward smaller homes and “a greater sense of community,” offering a mid-century American style and model names like “Hot Chocolate,” “Apple Pie” and “Chicken Noodle Soup,” said Vanessa Jenkins, Preston Development Co. executive vice president.

Across the street will be a $3.5 million, 10-acre town park with play areas, a large field, dog park, and a covered pavilion with picnic tables and grills. Chatham Park will have two other neighborhood parks, plus mini-parks, open spaces and over 10 miles of greenways.

Thales Academy, serving 1,200 students in grades K-12, is scheduled to open nearby in the fall of 2021.

“We’re building to deliver an experience-rich, simplistic lifestyle,” said Rebecca McAdoo, division president of Fresh Paint by Garman Homes. “More and more people are purging their clutter and desiring spaces that are artfully designed to the way they want to live.”

Public pre-sales begin March 19. For more information go to tinyurl.com/sh6hcht.

The new homes could be ready for move in by October.

MOSAIC AT CHATHAM PARK

Preston Development Co. also is moving ahead with Mosaic, a 350-acre live, work and play gateway within the roughly 2,200-acre North Village off U.S. 15-501 near the U.S. 64 Bypass.

A Bojangles restaurant and the Penguin Place commercial area, which includes Mi Cancun, Root Cellar, House of Hops, New View Eye Care and the UNC Chatham Park Medical Office, already have opened just south of the Mosaic site.

The Pittsboro Town Board approved the project’s first phase Feb. 24: 160,435 square feet in nine buildings on 44 acres. Roughly 45% of the site will be landscaped or have tree cover.

At full buildout, the Eco Group project will include retail, offices and restaurants; a UNC Urgent Care facility; a 114-room hotel; 164 rental apartments and 12 high-end, for-sale condos; a 350-seat performing arts theater; a 100-seat black-box theater; and a town green with an outdoor amphitheater.

Town Hall Burger and Beer, People’s Coffee, EDGE Aveda Day Spa and Salon and other tenants could open their doors by early 2021, and events could be scheduled for the event green later that year, according to the Mosaic website.

Chatham Park’s future villages will add more homes and businesses but will depend on the timing of roads and other infrastructure, as well as market and economic conditions, development officials have said.

Future plans have not been submitted yet.

Source: News & Observer