New Active-Adult Community Coming Outside Atlanta

Oak Hall Companies and Jim Chapman Communities have teamed up for the fourth time on an age-restricted community in the greater Atlanta area.

This yet-to-be named community will be found in Gainesville, Ga. on the shores of Lake Lanier. The 206-acre property will include a total of 739 homes, including 248 single-family detached homes.

It will be a 55+ community, which is a demographic Jim Chapman, principal of the company that shares his name and 2016 chairman of the National Association of Home Builders 55+ Housing Industry Council, knows well. He launched the Jim Chapman Communities brand in 2005 which builds and develops active-adult homes to compliment his custom home building company, Jim Chapman Fine Homes.

The homes in the Gainesville community will feature active-adult staples, like zero-step entry, wide (minimum 30-inch) doorways, and the master bedrooms on the first floor. There will also be no minor children allowed to live in the community, Chapman says, because it’s what buyers want.

“My buyers love their adult children and grandchildren,” he says, “but they don’t necessarily want them living there, much less [to live near] someone with a 16-year-old driving through the community too fast.”

Although Chapman’s active-adult communities are normally gated, this one will be gate-free because the development team is incorporating a large portion of the existing road infrastructure near the lake.

And while his typical communities are closer to densely populated areas, this community, about 45 north of downtown Atlanta, will be a destination, Chapman says. Since it will offer a wide array of amenities, he adds, it should have no trouble attracting buyers from “all over the eastern seaboard.”

The mixed-use neighborhood will encompass 1.1 miles of Lake Lanier frontage with 140 boat slip docks as well as 24,000 sq. ft. of retail, office and restaurant space. A large clubhouse and outdoor swimming pool are part of the master plan, as are paved sidewalks throughout the landscaped community. The developers also intend to donate land to the City of Gainesville to build a new fire station.

Downtown Gainesville is one mile away and has restaurants, shops, and a large medical center.
Home construction should start in fall 2017, Chapman says, and the community should have 48-month build-out from there.

Now that the resale market has rebounded from the housing crash, Chapman says more baby boomers are selling their existing homes and looking for their final new home. Of the roughly 70 homes in the Jim Chapman Communities backlog, Chapman says about half were all-cash deals. “This is the cohort that has cash,” he says.

Plus, with many boomers still in the workforce, the active-adult market should have some solid years ahead, according to Chapman, who uses a lovely metaphor to crystallize his point:

“We’re watching the rat come through the snake,” he says. “There’s always beginning, a bigger middle, and then a tail-off at the end.”

We’re at the bigger middle point now.

A Good Cause
Chapman will have an active-adult home on display at the International Builders Show in Orlando from Jan. 10-12, 2017.

Once the show is complete, the home will be taken to Gainesville where his team will place it on a foundation and give it to Family Promise of Hall County, an organization that works to end the cycle of family homelessness.

Chapman found Family Promise through HomeAid Atlanta, an organization he knows well as an NAHB member.
The modular home is being built by Nationwide Custom Homes and will come fully furnished with all appliances and fixtures, and will highlight the latest design and construction features available to today’s builders. In Hall County, the home would be listed for approximately $300,000.

This will be the third home in Family Promise’s Next Step Program and will be called the Spring Street Home. The homes are used by Family Promise of Hall County as transitional homes in the organization’s 90-day program that provides advisement, advocacy, and accountability for families seeking independence.

To realize the Spring Street Home, Family Promise has started a two-month fund raising campaign to quickly raise the monies needed to prepare the lot and pour the foundation for the new home. “To be able to use this magnificent donation by Jim Chapman Communities and friends, we need $100,000 by the end of the year so that the house can be moved here right after IBS is over. We would love to welcome our first family ‘home’ in January 2017,” said Lindsey McCamy, executive director of Family Promise of Hall County, in a release.