Atlanta-based developer Jim Jacobi, president of Parkland Communities, has founded a new-home building company, Parkland Residential, focused on creating single-family build-to-rent communities. The builder is providing homes for the “missing middle” market in the place where its target demographic wants to live.
The builder has recently broken ground at Parkland Springs in Lawrenceville, Ga., which will be its first build-to-rent community. The formerly commercially zoned property has been rezoned for 58 stacked townhomes with rear-entry garages and expansive park space.
“I realized there was a significant opportunity to provide a solution to the missing middle housing problem,” says Jacobi. “… Our strategy is the opposite of the typical exurban rental communities. We find infill redevelopment opportunities where traditional apartments are unwelcome and rezone it as a build-to-rent community, thus helping satisfy the missing middle housing demand.”
Parkland Residential aims to build a number of build-to-rent communities in metro Atlanta over the next several years.
“We analyze data to find where holes are in the market, and that is where we pursue land opportunities,” Jacobi says. “For instance, three years ago we could tell Dacula was overlooked, so we started looking for land in that area and secured two of the best land parcels in Dacula.”
