A couple years ago, I took note of a new housing development in Bend, Oregon, that was to be modeled after the bucolic Shire of Tolkien’s (and Peter Jackson’s) Lord of the Rings. I recall being both intrigued by and dubious of the project, writing at the time that:

…it would be the ultimate in geek bragging rights, I suppose. “Hey, look, I live in a hobbit hole!” But ultimately, it just seems a little too contrived to be desirable…

Turns out everybody else agreed with me. Today, I read the bank is foreclosing on The Shire. Only two homes (of a planned 31) have been finished, and only one of those has actually sold. The developer behind the project, Ron Meyers, is quoted as saying, “Some people were turned off by living in ‘Disneyland.'”

Um… yeah. You didn’t think of that before you took out massive loans and broke ground? And you didn’t consider that the sorts of people who might like to live in a Disney-style re-creation of a fictional place probably don’t have the income to buy million-dollar homes? Seems to me that folks who have that kind of scratch are usually interested in something a little less… gimmicky.

Somebody didn’t do their market research, it seems…