Middleburg is such a growing town, with a young government and special interest groups that have gone berserk. Most of these are people who have moved in recently. Once they move in, they don’t want anyone else to move in. It happened to me. They don’t want any kind of change whatsoever. But I’ve agreed to build a wastewater treatment plant and give it to the town. I’ve got 80 percent of the land in a conservation easement. For the town of Middleburg, the resort will create a very strong economic base. It is not a wealthy town, even though that’s the perception of it. The revenue from the resort will produce $500,000 a year for the town, which can go into roads or whatever improvements need to be done.

I want to make this a five-star, world-class resort. There’ll be horseback riding, and a spa with yoga and Pilates. We are going to have culinary classes and tennis and hiking, with golf not far away. We think it will be running by late spring or summer 2008.

Is it true you learned the hard way that people in Middleburg will not buy $35 olive oil?

Yes, there was $35 olive oil at Market Salamander, the French-style specialty foods store I’ve opened in town. We had to have a good reality check. We had a very high-end line and it didn’t work.

Now we’re concentrating on great food. We really want to boost the Virginia wine industry. We want to highlight the Piedmont wines and foods: the hams, peanuts, special recipes.

And someday maybe you will be selling items designed by Parsons School graduates who studied at the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center.

Oh, I’ve always been interested in drawing and photography. I designed a linen line from my photographs that I’m going to use at the resort. Parsons came along around the same time. I became a board member there in 2002.

Working with the school has put me into a world with an entrée to some of the top designers, such as Donna Karan and Diane von Furstenburg. And I’ve just fallen in love with the school. It’s a great, diverse student body. And they were working under deplorable conditions, which is why I did what I did. The design center will be a common area for students to gather, with galleries, meeting spaces, archives and a design store.

What are you going to do next?

My biggest ambition is to make sure my two children grow up healthy and happy. I think I’ve got my hands full right now. I’ve got to build this franchise, I’ve got to get this resort up and I’m not going to take on another thing until these two things come to fruition.

I have a 20-year-old daughter who is taking a break from college. She tried a major and decided it wasn’t what she wanted to do. I told her, "I want you to wait until you find out what you want to do." Too many kids go to college and party, while the parents boast, "My child goes to Harvard." The kids come out saying, "I had a great four years, though I don’t think I learned much. Mommy and Daddy, find me a job."

My daughter is a show jumper and has very expensive horses. My 16-year-old son is like, "Can I have a Lamborghini?" and I’m going, "No." He says his sister has the equivalent in every stall. I have to explain that the horses are her job. I tell both of my kids to take on one thing at a time. I try to tell them that giving them everything they want is not going to make them good human beings. I tell them they’ll be miserable, depressed, with nothing to look forward to.

Photograph by Cade Martin.