В Тетонии строят закрытый клуб Grand Teton с гольф-полем и хранилищами биоматериалов

The Grand Teton Club, a new limited-membership gated golf course community, is officially under construction in Tetonia. As the club throws its hat into the ring of existing luxury housing options in Teton Valley, it aims to separate itself not only with amenities, but a focus on health and emerging medical technologies. “The interest has been quite high ever since we launched the website and are purchasing social media ads,” said Doug Gemmel, the club’s realtor and project manager. “We also are going to launch here shortly what we call a discovery package, where you’ll come and stay on-site for two days as our guests” Spanning 1,700 acres of land, the project will have 325 homesites and an 18-hole golf course. Gemmel estimated completion of the first model home by spring 2027, and the course by spring or summer of 2028. Golf course construction is overseen by Oliphant Golf Course Management, based in Wisconsin, and Gemmel estimated that about half of the current workforce is local to Teton Valley or Rexburg. Anyone interested in ownership or the discovery package must prove their genuine interest and financial qualification before being accepted. However, Gemmel said the club is not yet accepting reservations and has no confirmed price points for homes or membership. Lot sales are hoped to hit the market by early fall of this year, according to Gemmel. “Having been involved with this project for 21 years, through the good times and the bad times, I want to make sure when we do go to market, we are ready,” Gemmel said. “That all the infrastructure is complete, all the lot tops are cleaned up, the loop road is paved, the signage is all complete and accurate.” Those two decades trace back to Gemmel’s involvement with the former River Rim Ranch, launched in 2005, where the complete Grand Teton Club will eventually sit. In 2007, Gemmel said the ranch acquired additional land with county approval and began working on the golf course before the 2008 housing crash halted everything. A deed resulted in bank ownership of the land until 2019. “Due to the fact that it was bank-owned for so long, we felt it necessary to rebrand it with a new name, new look, new feel, hence the Grand Teton Club,” Gemmel said. Joshua Chase, head of planning and zoning in Teton County, ID, said he has received questions about the naming of the project. Chase clarified that “Grand Teton Club” is not the name on the plat, which is what he sees behind-the-scenes — the plat remains under the River Rim Ranch planning and development umbrella. Inside the club Owned by parent company HMV Inc., the Grand Teton Club markets itself as commensurate to other luxury home communities in the valley such as Tributary, located nearby in Driggs. “I think Tributary has been extremely helpful for all of us,” Gemmel said. “They’ve sort of raised the bar of what’s available in Teton Valley. So, we’re both very different and in essence, we’re also comparable.” Both Gemmel and the club’s website boast location, amenities and exclusivity as alluring aspects of membership, but there are some elements that distinguish the Grand Teton Club from its counterparts. Namely, the club holds a unique emphasis on health — particularly human longevity — that it plans to execute through its novel Healthspan/Lifespan™ and Family BioRepository concepts. “The ownership group is very health-oriented, and they’re firmly committed to the five pillars of Healthspan/Lifespan™,” Gemmel said, “which are diet, exercise, sleep, health technologies, as well as a like-minded community mindset.” One of the Grand Teton Club’s goals is to extend both Healthspan and Lifespan across generations. The club’s website defines Healthspan as “the duration of healthy functional life,” and Lifespan as “the length of time a person lives.” As such, homesites inside the club can have both a main and guest house, per owner preferences. These are called Multi-Generational Family Compounds, designed to house multiple generations and remain in members’ families for decades to come. According to the club’s website, members will also have the option to build a Family BioRepository beneath their homesite in a reinforced concrete basement. Marketed by the club as the first of its kind, the BioRepository is defined as a “facility that collects and stores samples of biological materials such as DNA, stem cells, blood, sperm, eggs, and certain body tissues and proteins.” This, the website says, is designed to preserve biological materials and protect family health information for future generations. Gemmel said this is a far-off phase for the Grand Teton Club, and declined to provide additional information, including what already exists on the club’s website. The Grand Teton Institute In addition to introducing emerging medical technologies — including those involving artificial intelligence — the club’s website states an intention to establish the Grand Teton Institute, envisioned to be a diagnostic and research clinic. The Grand Teton Club plans to partner with the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in this endeavor, as well as in developing the Family BioRepository concept. A spokesperson for the Buck Institute confirmed this partnership. The Buck Institute did not share any additional details about the Family BioRepository in a request for comment. Per the club’s website, part of the Grand Teton Institute will be a Concierge Precision Medicine Clinic, an opt-in healthcare program with medical services for participating family members at a lower cost than comparable programs. Planned capabilities of the Grand Teton Institute include MRI scans, DNA methylation, genome sequencing and managing the Family BioRepositories. A Medical Advisory Board of physicians, researchers and other leaders in the health community was established to guide the Grand Teton Institute, according to the club’s website. Looking forward As the Grand Teton Club progresses in construction and concept, Gemmel predicted that most of its members and lot owners will be part-time residents, with a smaller portion being full-time. Some of those living full-time on the club’s land may be employees. Gemmel said an area for workforce housing units was set aside in planning, and will be available to employees necessary to the club’s daily functioning. “We understand that to run a community of this caliber, we need employees,” Gemmel said. “And we also understand the constraints that employees are burdened within our community of finding a place to live.” As for the general public, the only accessible aspect of the club will be the golf course, per the development agreement. According to Gemmel, Teton County residents can play the course at limited tee times, and for a certain number of rounds per year. From Gemmel’s perspective, it is the lifestyle that all residents of Teton Valley get to enjoy that makes the Grand Teton Club so appealing. “We live in a very, very special place, we’re extremely lucky, and we want to introduce that to our potential property owners and members of the club,” Gemmel said.