Along Habersham County’s Industrial Boulevard you’ll find what appears to be a road to nowhere. There is a curb cut and a couple of dirt tracks disappearing into overgrown grass and a stand of young pine. 950 Industrial Boulevard in Baldwin is an example of what came to be known as a “Zombie Subdivision” during the latter days of the real estate crash. A new plan and new development dollars could bring the zombie back to life in the coming months.
In its heyday, the 8 acre piece of property shot up in value almost overnight. The sale price went from $100,000 in 2002 up to $865,000 in 2005. Now, after a foreclosure and nearly a decade in hands of an Alabama Bank and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the current market value is listed at $85,380.
Developers had planned to build about a dozen apartment homes and went so far as to start building the road and installing utilities before the bubble burst. If you look at the site from above, you can almost see the neighborhood layout, the wide oval street with curbside parking. “All the infrastructure is in place,” explains Real Estate Agent Wade Rhodes, “curb, gutter, water, sewer and power.”
Rhodes is tasked with selling the property and says there’s interest in reviving plans for a new community here. “I have a buyer who wants to buy it and turn it into a single-family residential neighborhood.” The proposed development, Cottages at Habersham, would consist of 25 homes priced at around $125,000 each.
Rhodes brought the preliminary plan to the Baldwin City Council this week. The property is currently zoned for multifamily development, a holdover from the failed apartment development. The prospective buyer is requesting a rezoning to “single-family” before moving forward. “As soon as we get it rezoned we’re ready to start,” Rhodes says, “Once we clean it up and get the road in we’re ready to go.”
Baldwin City leaders are expected to address the zoning at 950 Industrial Boulevard later this month.
