Major developer to take over West Rome subdivision
Smith Douglas Homes will finish Magnolia Walk.
A major southeastern developer, Smith Douglas Homes, will build out the vacant lots in the Magnolia Walk subdivision off Smith Road, in the shadow of Mount Alto.
Jim Van Kirk, director of marketing for Smith Douglas, said the company hopes to close on the acquisition of 37 lots during the month of March. He said Dee Yancey III of Rome is listed as the seller.
Geoff Shrewsbury, vice president of operations for the Smith Douglas Homes Atlanta office, said the company would construct a few homes at a time and let the market determine how quickly they finish out the development.
“If we feel like we can sell two or three houses a month we’ll kind of go at that pace,” Shrewsbury said. “If we see the market has more momentum than that we’ll accelerate by a house or two a month.”
“We think there is a lot of pent up demand for new construction that is (financially) within reach,” Van Kirk said. He said most of the homes at Magnolia Walk would be three-bedroom, two bath ranch style units, priced in the low- to mid$100,000 range.
Shrewsbury said the company has had a lot of success as they move further out from the north metro Atlanta market, and has been doing a lot of work in Bartow and Paulding counties the last couple of years.
“Rome has been on the horizon for us,” Shrewsbury said.
“Like a lot of projects, it sat through the downturn in the housing market,” Shrewsbury said. “We just feel like Rome is a viable option for us right now.”
Surveyors with Southland Engineering were on site Wednesday getting new measurements for each of the overgrown lots.
“They build a really high quality product that usually sells pretty quick, said Kevin Cooney, a vice president at Southland. “We’ve been doing a lot of work for them the last couple of years.”
Smith Douglas also has offices in Birmingham, Nashville, Raleigh and Charlotte in addition to the Atlanta office in Woodstock.