Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Rick Lantgen
Changes are coming to Pecan Plantation.
The residential community recently welcomed new general manager Rick Lantgen on July 18.
Lantgen is no stranger to the management world. In fact, he may be a familiar face to some, as he was also the former general manager of DeCordova Bend Estates for the past six years.
For Lantgen, it was difficult at times to live in the same community that he managed, and that, coupled with the “potential” he saw in Pecan, were two of the driving forces behind accepting his new position.
“Through my wife, Betty, who owns Henson Lumber, I got to know the Anthonys who are the owners of the orchard,” Lantgen said. “When they asked me to come over here to interview, I said, ‘Sure.’ I thought, ‘Well, I’ve always liked Pecan and I like playing golf here and all the people that are here.’ It’s a great area and a lot of potential — the main reason I decided to come.”
The potential, he said, refers to the amount of growth Pecan could experience in the future, in not only more residents, but the number of amenities — 18 of which are already established in the community.
“(Pecan) has a marina with a store and food, a PAC (Pecan Activity Center) with the gym, dog parks, softball fields and playground, archery, airpark, horse stable, six tennis courts and three pickleball courts — but we need more,” Lantgen said. “I think that just by looking on the outside in, which I had been for six years, I can see that they didn't have the leadership to move this place along the way it should, and I felt like I could do that, because I've done it enough that I could see this potential.”
Lantgen, who still currently lives in DeCordova, said Pecan has 3,200 homes and that the population is over 7,000. He said that the Anthonys are planning to build out the rest of their orchard, which will add an additional 1,300 homes to the community.
When that happens, Lantgen said, Pecan’s amenities will get overused.
“It’ll be tough to get a tee time, tough to get a reservation — actually, it’s hard right now to get a reservation to eat,” Lantgen said, with a chuckle, crediting the increase in food reservations to Chef Jordan Ray, whom he also brought over from DeCordova. "He's changed the food and beverage around. From what I've known, it's been here before, but they haven’t had anything in the last five or six years, so he’s bringing it back. Our excitement is coming over and reviving Pecan, but there's just a lot to do.”
Lantgen said he has several visions for the community, and most have to do with expanding the amenities in preparation for the increase of residents in the future.
“The Marina needs more slips,” he said. “I mean, there’s a hundred people on the waiting list for a boat slip. The major project there is to try to fund that and put in a lot more slips. The horse stables, I think we have 20 boarders right now. The Anthonys have given us another 30 acres, so I'm looking forward to putting some more stables in, and there’s a big waiting list there too for horses. The PAC is a really neat place down there, but this whole place lacks a fitness center, so that's a priority for me; I'd like to see that happen. Pickleball is huge here, but they have only three (courts) and they would like to get another three, so we need to do that. As more people come, we need to get an expansion of the (clubhouse) for holding bigger events. There's a lot of potential, which means we need to get all these things done and the membership is excited about it too, so that's always good.”
As general manager, Lantgen is looking forward to attending more committee meetings and meet more of the residents, as well as hear some of the exciting stories about their past.
“Anytime you go to a membership, the first thing they do is give you their autobiography and who they are, but it's always fun to listen to them because there's so many people,” he said. “The diversity out here is crazy. It's unbelievable what people have retired from doing. I wish I could live some of the lives that they did.”
Lantgen has only been general manager of Pecan for two months now, but he said it’s “been a whirlwind.”
He added, “The most encouraging thing is the excitement everybody's having here. A lot of people are excited about what direction Pecan is going, and I'm just glad to be part of it. It's a nice place to be.”
