Developers backed by SAS Institute founder Jim Goodnight have bought about 1,800 acres in eastern Chatham County from retired Superior Court Judge Wade Barber and his family.

Preston Development, which built the Preston subdivision in Cary, paid $17.4 million for the land, or about $10,000 an acre, said Barber, who retired from the Orange-Chatham bench in January.

"We're just going to hold onto it for a while and see what happens over there," said Tim Smith, a Preston partner. "We're not going to develop it ourselves. We buy land everywhere hoping [value] will go up, and in Chatham County, it's going up."

Investors and developers have been drawn to Chatham, hoping to capture demand for housing and amenities in this quickly growing segment of the Triangle.

With five subdivisions approved in recent years, Pittsboro's population of 2,500 is expected to triple by 2008, and utilities are straining to keep up.

The undeveloped 1,770 acres Preston bought, under the name Chatham Park Investors, is three miles south of Pittsboro in the town's planning jurisdiction between Moncure and Hanks Chapel roads.

The tract is larger than Briar Chapel, the county's largest approved subdivision. For Briar Chapel, San Diego-based developer Newland Communities plans to build 2,389 homes on 1,589 acres five miles south of Chapel Hill off U.S. 15-501. There also will be 512,000 square feet of commercial space and two schools.

Preston plans to hold the land for three or four years, Smith said. Once its value has increased enough to make a tidy profit, the group likely will sell it to a developer.

The developer would have to agree to have the property annexed for the town to provide water and sewer service, said David Monroe, Pittsboro's planning director.

In recent months, citizens groups have called for the county to create development guidelines for the U.S. 15-501 and U.S. 64 corridors.

"We don't want 64 to become like 15-501," County Commissioner Patrick Barnes said Wednesday. "We'd like to keep 64 as it is and not have something up on every corner."

Supported by billionaire Goodnight, Smith and partner Julian "Bubba" Rawl have worked on other projects in the Triangle. In 1991, they built Preston, a 2,000-acre planned community off High House Road in Cary. In 1995, they took over what became Wakefield Plantation, Wake County's largest development, with 4,000 homes, shopping centers, schools and offices.

(News researcher Susan Ebbs contributed to this report.)

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