MARIETTA, GA-Told they would be losing millions in trying to redevelop a string of dilapidated duplexes near this city's Fraser Circle, Atlanta developers Marty Littleton and Gary Mills ignored the advice and started the job anyway. Today, they tell area brokers, their project, when fully completed, will be comparable to Atlanta's Virginia-Highland neighborhood of established and stable homes.
The Littleton-Mills' duplexes start at $160,000 for two bedrooms and two baths in 1,090 sf of living area. Transients are moving out and permanent families are moving into the Fraser Circle area, the developers say.
Nearby, the City of Marietta is selling an 8.2-acre block of 27 rundown apartments and houses to Hedgewood Properties, a Cumming-based developer with a proven track of rebuilding orphaned neighborhoods into vibrant communities. The price is $1.2 million or $3.8 million less than the city paid for the properties, as GlobeSt.com previously reported. Hedgewood plans to break ground in October, after the deal closes, on 89 townhomes and single-family residences.
On the north side of Fraser Circle, developer Roger DeBoy and his de Oplossing Inc. firm are working on Emerson Hill, a development of 32 brick townhomes that critics also warned were undevelopable, the developer has told brokers and city officials. DeBoy credits Hedgewood's appearance in the area as a motivating force for other developers to follow.
Being demolished west of Emerson Hill is the former 12-acre Clay Homes public housing project where the city is talking with several developers to create a new urbanism-type development, brokers familiar with the project tell GlobeSt.com. The former Johnny Walker public housing project is also expected to be redeveloped as a new neighborhood. Developers are also bidding on that project, the city confirms to GlobeSt.com.
Three blocks south of Marietta Square is Church Street Partners' Marietta Mill Lofts, a 39-unit project planned in a new building. All of the lofts but one have been pre-sold even as construction gets under way, area brokers intimate with the development tell GlobeSt.com.
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