Jim Duke: What do you do with $1.02 million worth of mailboxes?

Mailboxes are the subject of considerable discussion in The Peninsula where there’s a push under way to get residents to refurbish the distinctive verdigris boxes. There is more than $1 million worth of mailboxes in the 850-home neighborhood.

Each one costs on the order of $1,200, including the matching posts to which each one is bolted. While standard mailboxes run $10 to $20 at local hardware stores, the mailboxes in the Peninsula neighborhood are identical, vault-like boxes painted with a distinctive, hand-done verdigris finish.

Verdigris describes the patina formed when copper, brass or bronze is weathered over a long period of time. These mailboxes are made of cast metal and painted black, then given a green overlay to look like weathered copper or bronze.

Most of them, particularly the ones that date back to the start two decades ago of the carefully laid-out neighborhood, have faded. In many cases the signature blacks and greens are now various shades of gray.

In the neighborhood’s Winter Newsletter, Jim Duke, president of the Peninsula Property Owners Association for the past six years, said “the poor condition of the vast majority of our mailboxes should be obvious to everyone” who drives through the neighborhood that was developed by Crescent Resources in the early 1990s.

He continued: “After years of corrosion and sometimes neglect, the Peninsula’s most visible signature is in desperate need of a facelift.”

Appearances are key to upholding property values in any owner-occupied neighborhood.

The Peninsula Property Owners Association spends around $100,000 a year on improvements to what professionals call the campus.

Enhancing the “look” of the neighborhood also enhances property values, Duke said. A consistent look means Realtors can tell executives transferring in and out of the Charlotte region that property values are more likely to hold their own than neighborhoods without a homeowners association.

No orange houses

DEAN

Allen Tate Realtor Dixie Dean, who specializes in The Peninsula area, said corporate executives who are transferred in and out of markets like Charlotte look for HOA-governed communities.

“You have employees who are relocating — they tend to gravitate to neighborhoods that offer the type of consistency that The Peninsula and Birkdale offer,” Dean said.

“I have buyers who balk at having to follow a set of rules, but you explain to them about how the consistency helps as it relates to reselling their home, that they are likely going to have to sell in the next five years,” she explained.

“You may not want your neighbor to paint your house orange,” she said. “Living there day to day, you are not going to be surprised by your neighbor’s personalization of their property.”

Indeed, having a uniform look in a development means individuality may take a back seat to property values. The Peninsula is asking that residents use the same contractor to ensure that each mailbox — as well as the gold numbers on the side — looks virtually the same.

$60,000 to paint signs and posts

The Peninsula Property Owners Association and Duke Energy used the same contractor to paint hundreds of matching streetlights and signs within the community. The bill for the street signs and posts the PPOA owns was on the order of $60,000. The mailboxes, however, belong to individual homeowners, which puts them out of the scope of community maintenance.

From an HOA perspective, this is a “tough nut to crack,” Duke said. It costs about $125 for a contractor to paint the mailboxes in the standard green on black pattern.

As if shepherding 850 homeowners through the process isn’t hard enough, dealing with contractors and sub-contractors is a whole different story.

Some employees say they have not been paid by the sub-contractor for work they’ve performed.
“I took off two weeks to work…because he said he was going to pay us $28 per pole. We got 94 poles done,” said Paul Renckens, 22. (Duke is encouraging the sub-contractor to pay his workers.)
Renckens has moved to Asheville and is hunting for work.

Duke has submitted paperwork to run for a third term on the Peninsula Property Owners Association Board, explaining that there are significant projects ahead and the work is not done. “Our goal is to continue to be the premier community in North Mecklenburg County,” Duke said.