Located in Historic Downtown McKinney






Friday, March 24, 2006

McKinney Courier-Gazette- recent Adriatica article

Adriatica

Jeff Blackard spoke about the 45-acre Croatian Village project. The property is located on Stonebridge Lake at Virginia and Stonebridge. It will have the same dimensions as Supetar, a village on the Croatian Coast that is becoming a popular tourist destination. The spot has 1,000-year old differently sized and shaped buildings.

“If you look at it, it's like no development you've ever seen because in history that's how buildings were built. Every building was different, because 1,000 years ago, they didn't have bulldozers to skim the property. The goal in out project is to pay attention to (topography) so we'll have creative angles, just like you see in a real Croatian Village,” Blackard said.

At Adriatica, he said, no street will be straight and the development will be centered around the “harbor” (an inward cut of Stonebridge lake).

“We changed the way that intersection works,” Blackard said. “We went from the water to the intersection, instead of from the intersection to the water.”

Also, the village will feature canals, two islands, a 70-room hotel, vineyards and a farmers market, which is “natural to that environment,” he said. The buildings will be ornamented with imported Croatian and Italian carvings and other artwork. A bell tower, which will also house offices, will be home to a working bell manufactured in Croatia.

The “harbor” will become the perfect venue for festivals and the shops and lofts there will be prime commercial and residential real estate.

A massive fountain which will feature a dove grasping an olive branch in its beak will be “probably one of the finest pieces of artwork in the DFW Metroplex,” Blackard said. The piece will be hand carved on site from Indian limestone.

A chapel to be built on one of the islands is currently being designed by a carving school on the Croatian island of Brac

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