Perfect Timing for The Cliffs at High Carolina Sales Premiere

Smog covered downtown Asheville on July 21, 2008. A Code Orange air quality alert was issued for most of Western North Carolina, especially mountain elevations. Photo —Asheville Citizen-Times.


Tiger Woods Golf Course—The Cliffs at High Carolina

As planned the autumn day provided flawless weather conditions for the launch of the Tiger Woods Golf Course residential community called The Cliffs at High Carolina. The Sunday Asheville Citizen-Times edition provided coverage of the sales event with two front page articles: “Woods cachet could be key to Cliffs’ sales” and “Woods unveils ambitious Cliffs course design."

Jim Anthony, President and CEO of The Cliffs Communities, Inc. and Tiger Woods co-hosted the November 8, 2008 High Carolina press party.

During the news conference Mr. Anthony told the audience that he had sold about 50 High Carolina golf course lots for more than $40 million.

Mr. Woods promoted the scenery by saying “This property is phenomenal, breathtaking, with 50-mile views. I grew up in (Southern California) with nothing but smog; we couldn’t see anything,” Mr. Anthony told reporters that Mr. Woods visits the property often.

Western North Carolina Smog Alerts

It is obvious from Messrs. Anthony and Woods’s comments that they have not visited Asheville during warm-weather months when smog seriously impairs visibility and lung function. The situation is so critical that on January 30, 2006 Attorney General Roy Cooper filed a lawsuit on behalf of the citizens of North Carolina against the Tennessee Valley Authority. In his press release Mr. Cooper stated that “TVA’s pollution is making North Carolinians sick, damaging our economy and harming our environment.”

On August 4, 2008 the Asheville Citizen-Times reported that the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources had issued an "Air quality unhealthy at high elevation alert" for mountain areas near Asheville.

Pollution warnings are common during summer months when elevated temperatures trap the ozone-laden air over the mountain region. Air quality in Western North Carolina is not expected to improve in the near future.

If The Cliffs at High Carolina sales premiere had been held on July 21, 2008 the expensive sought-after mountain views would have been invisible.