"Everyone thinks development is the highest and best use of the land. But we're not talking about sacrificing the value of land. To the contrary when you preserve it with some type of plan, it increases the value,"

Steve Nygren, Founder of Serenbe



Steve Nygren, and his wife, Marie, discovered the property now known as Serenbe (in Palmetto, Georgia) on an outing in the early 1990s. They purchased 60 acres, along with the existing buildings, in 1991. Weekend visits for Marie, Steve and their young daughters literally transformed their lives and in 1994 they sold their Atlanta home and relocated fulltime to Serenbe. In 1996, they turned the 1930s horse barn next to their house into guest rooms and opened the Serenbe Bed & Breakfast. Marie grew up in the hospitality business. Her mother was the owner and operator of Mary Mac's Tearoom, a well-known Southern restaurant in the heart of Atlanta. Marie attended Florida State School of Hospitality and Restaurant Administration before returning to Atlanta to manage the Women's Commerce Club. Steve was raised on a Colorado farm and began working part time for Stouffer's Food Corporation while attending the University of Colorado. Steve began as a busboy with Stouffer’s and seven years later was the National Director of Sales and Marketing for Stouffer’s Hotels. In 1973, Steve opened the Pleasant Peasant restaurant, which grew to a corporation of 34 restaurants in eight states by the time of his departure in 1994.


Jill Elizabeth Westfall, a bylined Contributor to Money magazine for 15 years, has shared green-living, money-saving and real estate tips with HGTV's The Front Door, Glamour magazine ( Editors' Choice for 7th Best Cost-Cutting Tip - October 2008 issue), Home Improvement Magazine, E The Environmental Magazine (cover story), AARP The Magazine, BobVila.com, Creators News Service, and The Publicity Show. She has reported on cover and second-cover stories for People, MORE, and Money magazines and her byline has also been featured in such publications as Time, Newsweek, Newsday, Atlanta Woman magazine, Catalyst, The New York Times, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Newsday, CNN International, The Rocky Mountain News, The Asbury Park Press, and The Anchorage Daily News.

Her original reporting has been subsequently picked up by The Today Show, CNN, The Discovery Channel, German television, radio stations (from Canada to South America), the BBC, and talk shows nationwide. Jill was a weekly Contributing Writer to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's real estate section for eight years, has reported on hundreds of communities throughout Atlanta and frequently contributed real estate reporting to Money magazine - including "Best Places to Live" and "Best Places to Retire." She moved to Atlanta in the early 1990s, previously living in New York, Connecticut, Germany and Canada.