Through its for-profit subsidiary, RDF Properties, the fund is developing Clark's Grove, a planned 300-home community, a half mile from the town square and 35 miles east of Downtown Atlanta. Thirty-seven lots have been sold. Single-family residences and townhomes are priced from $160,000 to $500,000, according to brokers familiar with the local shelter market.
The fund has also acquired 121 vacant acres near the center of town and plans to bank the land for future development. Profits from RDF real estate ventures are funneled to the foundation, area planners who have been following Covington's growth tell GlobeSt.com. The Arnold Fund has also established Newton County Tomorrow Inc., a nonprofit group charged with education the community about the smart-growth concept versus unlimited sprawl development.
Local elected officials say the fund has never tried to influence the city in its own planning efforts. "We welcome their development strategy," a city staffer tells GlobeSt.com.
Robert O. Arnold and his wife, Florence Turner Arnold, set up the Arnold Fund in 1953 with $100,000. Robert Arnold was a former mayor of Athens and was a member of the Georgia Board of Regents from 1949 to 1963. He died in 1983.
A local historian tells GlobeSt.com Arnold made his money as a major stockholder in the Atlanta Gas Light Co.. He was also president of the now-defunct Covington Mill, a textile manufacturing plant. Covington served as the backdrop for the television programs, "The Dukes of Hazards" and "In the Heat of the Night."
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