Statesboro Development News

[deltasniper9]

Ok, I'm going to have point out all the NEW subdivisions in statesboro:

Statesboro

[MorganA15]

Yeah, they were saying were a year behind what they were looking for, but Starbucks wants to put three stores here and Walmart wants to build another store, and Talbots, and Chili's, Chedder's and Outback tried to get into our market last year, but that fell through due to the developers lack of preparedness (not going to name any names), etc. So either they are PF Changs or they dont know what their talking about.

That's what we don't need now. Unpreparedness. I'm glad they had that meeting Monday. Something definately needed.

Any news on the new Walmart? The remodel on the current one is looking pretty good. I don't see but about a month (I don't even think that much) of work left. I'm just ready for the new one - a bigger selection and it'll be closer to my house.

[MorganA15]

I figured there wasn't much work left on Walmart.

I just looked at the Chamber of Commerce bulletin, and it has Walmart having a ribbon cutting Friday at 8am.

[MorganA15]

So, i've been wondering what's going on at the small tract of land at the corner of the bypass and highway 67. Well, yesterday City Council approved a request to rezone the 6.036 acre tract to Planned Unit Development to allow for hotels and conference centers. I'm not exactly sure how a conference center is going to go there, but if they say so.

Also discussed last night, was an intrest in renaming a road after Erk Russell. Interest has been expressed to rename Lanier Road (i'm not sure if they're talking about Road or Drive). In order for a road to be renamed, 75 percent of property owners along there must agree.

Off topic, but I recently heard that a hotel may be going in Buckhead Plaza behind Walmart. If this is true, this will be two hotels and one getting added on to within a mile radius. The ones constructed in the 6.4 acre tract will also be included in the 1-mile radius.

Tillman Park (the Charleston-style condos located downtown) should be finished any time soon. They're supposed to be finished this Fall.

[noelmage]

You may have already heard, but I didn't see it on the list of current projects for the area posted above. The county recieved a huge grant to expand a bikeway across the bypass between 67 and Wal-Mart. Their idea for the best solution to the traffic problem -- to build a tunnel under the bypass specifically for pedestrian and bike traffic... I only heard about it in this month's council meeting, and needless to say, the councilmen thought the idea to be more than a little ridiculous.

[MorganA15]

You may have already heard, but I didn't see it on the list of current projects for the area posted above. The county recieved a huge grant to expand a bikeway across the bypass between 67 and Wal-Mart. Their idea for the best solution to the traffic problem -- to build a tunnel under the bypass specifically for pedestrian and bike traffic... I only heard about it in this month's council meeting, and needless to say, the councilmen thought the idea to be more than a little ridiculous.

I heard about that a few months ago. I understand the having the greenway downtown, but going all the way to Brooklet, I find kind of out there (espically the tunnel). I think having buses like GSU would work much better. CAT in Savannah is working well.

[andremurra]

For Statesboro, Johnson Run and Irongate ARE upscale homes. I suppose Tulepo Landings will give them a run for their money though. That home is only a few years old - my very close friend has been working for them for over ten years and was in charge of the house project at the time. Georgia Walk is not by any means one of the best subdivisions in Statesboro in MY opinion - yuck.

I think the councilman's idea to rename Fair Road to Erk Russell was quite retarded. Should there be a road renamed, it shouldnt be a road that already has a historically or geographically significant name. I dont particularly like the idea of Lanier being changed, but I cant think of a better street off the top of my head - perhaps the road between Akins Blvd and Chandler? I dont know. But Fair Road is historically and geographically significant because the fairgrounds are on Fair Road (duh) and it has been there for so many generations. Thats like renaming Main Street or something - I just think he should have thought a little more about it before throwing it out there.

I also dont see the space for a conference center and hotels, even if multiple hotels shares the same conference center - I dont think 6-acres cuts it. I know a developer recently stated that 1.8 acres is a perfect size lot to place a hotel in the rear and a restuarant in the front of the property, when referring to the auctioning off and demolishing of the former Guest Inn. So I dont know. And Buckhead Plaza getting a hotel? Thats very weird to put a hotel, a bunch of low-scale restuarants, a couple strip malls, and a car wash/lube place in the same square? WEIRD.

I am very impressed with the midtown coffee shop (although I havent tried their coffee). I LOVE the Wrapsody Grill (my favorite restaurant in town and Im looking forward to Christopher's.

[MorganA15]

Do you know who bought the Guest Inn and what they plan on doing with it? I went by there last weekend and it looks like it's been vacant for 5 years, when it's only been what, 6 months? They need to at least go ahead and demolish it. A pile of dirt would look better than what's out there now.

I think some more condos and a kind of upscale hotel (like Courtyard, Doubletree, Springhill) with all matching appearences would be nice out there. I think I would go with a more modern look since you have that gap between there and where the actual downtown begins (about at the Methodist Church).

[andremurra]

I cant believe that all these hotels are coming to Statesboro. Of course we dont know what they all are yet, but in addition to a Comfort Inn & Suite addition, a Holiday Inn, and potentially 3 or more additional hotels is just phenomenal. I think the direction Statesboro is heading is to the point of no return and it seems people are beginning to realize that. For every condo complex, hotel, park, and gourmet eatery, there is not much you can do to keep a community small. I do think that Statesboro needs more hotels, especially for football games, graduations, SOAR, and mainly GSU-type activities, perhaps even the Softball World Series at Mill Creek every year and the golf tournaments and stuff which are beginning to increase in popularity too. I am just surprised that outsiders are seeing the potential and are investing in Statesboro. I always knew it had enormous potential as a community, but its such an awesome feelings to realize that the rest of the country sees it too.

[andremurra]

New Developments!!

KGB Investors are developing the 12.82 acre parcel at the Southwest corner of Veterens Memorial Parkway and East Main Street. The residential community will consist of 27 two-story buildings, each housing 8 two-bedroom townhomes for a total of 432 bedrooms.

Cedar Development, LLC. plans to develop the 44.1 acre parcel on the West side of Northside Drive West, the North side of Stockyard Road, and the East side of Miller Street. This is in the close vicinity of the property Walmart purchased at the intersection of Veterens Memorial Parkway and Northside Drive West. The proposed residential community will consist of 190 townhomes.

[MorganA15]

Well, it's not just the World Series, Mill Creek hosts about 50 baseball tournaments a season. Sure, most of them are within 2 or so hours from here, but some still come from a couple of hours away and stay in hotels.

Also, conventions are becoming a big thing around here. That large Masons Convention is coming next year. It's supposed to bring about 3,000 people to town.

It seems that people are starting to get aggravated with the bypass. There's been about 3 people in the past 2 or 3 weeks call Soundoff in the newspaper asking about if they can find out when they are going to start on the bypass. Most are saying it's already bad enough, and when the 2 new apartment complexes open in the next few months, it's going to get worse.

I remember reading a few months back how the county is trying to get the DOT to finalize plans for the last leg of the bypass and start buying the right-of-way. At the time, they had 2 differnent routes. I'm wondering how they plan on doing it, since almost all of that out there is residential. I'm interested in seeing the route they choose for it.

Edited September 21, 2006 by MorganA15

[MorganA15]

New Developments!!

KGB Investors are developing the 12.82 acre parcel at the Southwest corner of Veterens Memorial Parkway and East Main Street. The residential community will consist of 27 two-story buildings, each housing 8 two-bedroom townhomes for a total of 432 bedrooms.

Cedar Development, LLC. plans to develop the 44.1 acre parcel on the West side of Northside Drive West, the North side of Stockyard Road, and the East side of Miller Street. This is in the close vicinity of the property Walmart purchased at the intersection of Veterens Memorial Parkway and Northside Drive West. The proposed residential community will consist of 190 townhomes.

Where did you find this? I just read about that yesterday in some of the minutes from City Council meeting notes. It just read how they approved to rezone it though.

I'm ready to see some websites!

(and Walmart to move in)

[andremurra]

Yeah, especially how their is so much residential development going on North of Statesboro. It seems that the only way to make a Northern Loop is to make it a long northern stretch, just like the South bypass is kind of a long stretch around the southern end. That is unless, they decide to slice some of those neighborhoods in half, and judging by some of those neighborhoods, I can imagine an uproar in the future.

[deltasniper9]

For Statesboro, Johnson Run and Irongate ARE upscale homes. I suppose Tulepo Landings will give them a run for their money though. That home is only a few years old - my very close friend has been working for them for over ten years and was in charge of the house project at the time. Georgia Walk is not by any means one of the best subdivisions in Statesboro in MY opinion - yuck.

Irongate is upscale(not very though), I can prove Johnson Run isn't, but saying that Irongate consists of primarily multimillion dollar homes is a complete lie.

[noelmage]

New Holiday Inn to open Fall 2007

Details were released today of the new 8 million dollar Holiday Inn located in Commerce Park on the Bypass next to Franklin Toyota. Located on 2.5 acres, it will be 63,000 square feet and four stories tall. It will contain 94 hotel rooms, meeting rooms, a full service dining room, a fitness room, business center, small lounge, and a pool. Groundbreaking for the hotel should be in January, with a completion date of late next fall.

Hmm... if they're planning on opening it by fall 07 they might want to get busy. It takes about a year and a half to open a full-service holiday inn product in an already developed zone. They've definitely got some work ahead of them.

Is Statesboro really ready for a full-service hotel? I realize that Statesboro's growing and more and more conventions are headed toward us, but really, a full-service hotel? It will definitely fill up on those all-important football and graduation weekends, but how many business travelers are going to pay 99 a night just to stay in Statesboro? The current Holiday Inn Express turns some business travelers away even at the negotiated rates. I just don't think it can possibly do very well. Any ideas on this?

[nova72asu]

Here is a map of the city limits. The red area in the center is what is generally considered downtown - although there are branches of downtown such as the Savannah Avenue Historic District or the Zetterower Avenue Historic District, and so on. The light blue dot in the center of the map is the location of Holiday Inn Express. The red dot on the east side of the map, is the location of the new Holiday Inn. It looks like it is barely in the city limits, so I wonder how they got around the height limit. It is in the Mall area, which is the anchor for the fast-growing corridor between Statesboro and Brooklet. The suburb (or bedroom community) will be completely merged with Statesboro in less than 5 years. According to the road signs, Brooklet is 8 miles from Statesboro, but due to excessive sprawl, its becoming hard to notice a difference. Brooklet is even beginning to develop its own bedroom communities.

Well, we just got a new city planner so hopefully, they may have thrown away the height limit. Eagle Village opened August of 2005 as a massive two-building 4-story complex of 776 rooms.

The City Ordinance has a provision that allows the City Council to allow buildings greater than 35ft in height in the Commercial Districts provided that for every foot in excess of 35 feet 1 foot is added to the yard setback requirements.

As far as Brooklet and Statesboro merging I don't really see that happening within 5 years, maybe within 10.

[nova72asu]

Just to introduce myself. I found this whole thing a week ago and decided to join. I live just outside of statesboro, but work in town. I moved here this past May from NC. I have knowledge of the City Zoning Ordinance, so if anyone ever has any questions I will try to answer them.

[MorganA15]

We should update the Current Projects list..maybe have a Proposed/Construction Soon, Under Construction, and Completed. There's been a few completions and coming soons we could add.

[andremurra]

It's nice to have you with us Nova. I do see Statesboro and Brooklet merging in the next five years though. On Highway 80 at least there is little distinction between Statesboro and Brooklet. Im not saying land will be completely developed parking lots next to each other with no grassy areas. Im saying the entities will be merged together and in many ways they already are. The part that will really seal the deal is the areas between Hwy 67 South and Southern Brooklet which are developing quite rapidly. As for the discussion about that Holiday Inn height restrictions, we were just a little confused before the press release was given because the sign they erected about a month prior, depicted a 6-story building and still does. Why they decided to do so when the Statesboro Herald stated that the building would be 4-stories, I dont know. Also, Statesboro recently lost 139 hotel rooms due to the closing of the Guest Inn. Of course, this was a good thing overall for the quality of hotel rooms Statesboro offers, but that created a nice gap for whichever developer wanted to tackle first, would get that small incentive to replace the lost rooms. I think Statesboro is ready, but it will never really grow until these leaps of faith occur (developing more hotels, commercial properties, etc.). Morgan, as for the project list, it was simply intended to be a conversation starter. We dont need to make new ones over and over, just simply do as were doing and updating as we hear about new developments. I also really like what theyre doing with the Summit Apartments. It really makes that building look a lot more pleasing to the eye.

[nova72asu]

I was speaking towards the city limit boundaries of Statesboro and Brooklet merging. I do agree that there is rapid development in the areas between 67, Northside, and Brooklet. i think it's somewhat unfortunate that alot of the development is occuring outside the cities in the county first. It's more difficult to annex land that has already been developed, served by private water systems, and has many property owners. But I guess there isn't much of a way around all that.

i noticed this particular subject was already discussed but i will just agree...

The population of the city seems to be just under the threshold of attracting the bigger name commercial businesses. It will certainly take leaps of faith on the part of developers. Once we get a few the others will follow.

[nova72asu]

Boozin

What is the general feeling here on the "restuarants" / bars situation?

[MorganA15]

Well, it's just like the one's whos developing Tillman Park. There was nothing like that in Statesboro, but now there's two more in the works.

Statesboro could have so much more than it does, nobody just doesn't want to bring anything here. I think most of the time, they just see Statesboro's population, or the county's, and gets scared. I dont think they add GSU or the other surrounding counties that come.

Once another national resturant chain comes, more will follow. That's what happned a few years ago with Longhorn/Ihop/Applebees/Ruby Tuesday. All of them popped up within months. Hopefully with Talbots coming, more clothing chains will follow. Maybe even some big-box retailers will do the same.

Edited September 23, 2006 by MorganA15

[andremurra]

Dont even get me started on the bar situation. Its one of those local evils I dont even want to talk about... evil as in the city council and alcohol control board being evil. I actually spoke at the infamous city council meeting where over 1000 people crowded downtown Statesboro. I spoke in opposition to the proposed alcohol ordinances as pretty much everyone else did except for the "Ogeechee Area Baptist Association" or whatever the crap they were. Ok Im going to stop there before I start really getting pissed at the leaps backwards Statesboro made that night. Anyway, my argument was based on the negative economic impact that Statesboro would experience. Of course, some developer friends of mine were in negotiations with Chili's, Outback, and Cheddars at the time and all dropped negotiations as soon as the alcohol ordinances came into play. Of course, after the city council realized how stupid they were, it was too late. Those businesses never came back to the drawing table. They probably think that our government leaders are unstable and might POP any minute and pass some weird law after they open that will lower their bottom line profits. It will be a while before that scar disappears from our commercial record. Who knows, the chain that said we were a year behind may have meant something to do with the alcohol ordinances. Ok im going to stop talking now.

I do know there is a proposed 72-unit (2-bedrooms per unit) residential community bounded by Cawana Road and the Bypass where that huge pond thing is. I know about it because there has been a rezoning sign out there (Some of my family lives in Bradford Place). The plans looked good, but we had a thing in the mailbox about the neighbors signing petition against it. Like hello, if you didnt want to live near sprawl, you shouldnt have moved to a subdivisions withing walking distance to Hwy 80, Hwy 67, Brannen Street and the Bypass. It reminds me of the stupid people who live on Savannah Avenue who claimed that they didnt know that when they moved there 13 years ago that it would become a cut-thru street from downtown to Hwy 80. HELLO, Its been a cut-thru street since the 70's when the Statesboro Mall was built. People are stupid.

BTW Morgan, what is this about two more communities in the works? Are you talking about downtown upscale condo communities?

But I gotta say that the parties have gotten better since the new alcohol ordinances. Since we cant get it in the bars, the parties have definitely gotten bigger and are a reminder of the older days of GSU's party scene when it was the #1 party school in America in the mid-late 90's. Of course the parties arent seeing numbers like 6,000+, but they are bigger than they were before the ordinances. Which reminds me that I have 400 jello shots in my fridge leftover from my party I had on Sunday. lol

Edited September 23, 2006 by andremurra

[MorganA15]

New Developments!!

KGB Investors are developing the 12.82 acre parcel at the Southwest corner of Veterens Memorial Parkway and East Main Street. The residential community will consist of 27 two-story buildings, each housing 8 two-bedroom townhomes for a total of 432 bedrooms.

Cedar Development, LLC. plans to develop the 44.1 acre parcel on the West side of Northside Drive West, the North side of Stockyard Road, and the East side of Miller Street. This is in the close vicinity of the property Walmart purchased at the intersection of Veterens Memorial Parkway and Northside Drive West. The proposed residential community will consist of 190 townhomes.

I was talking about those.

Now that you mention it, I do remember seeing a rezoning sign out there. I usually go that way sometimes when I go to my doctor's office since it comes out right there at it. I didn't read it, but i do remember it.

The bar thing is out of control. All you see in the newspaper is "so and so got their licence suspended", "so and so got fined", I just dont care anymore.

[nova72asu]

My fiance works for a Chilis and used to work for On the Border, I have told her about the alcohol ordinances here. She said it was no wonder that Statesboro doesn't have a Chilis or OTB, even though they would easily make the 50% requirement I don't think big chains like that don't want to be that controlled by the local government. I wish I could have been here for that meeting with the 1000's of people at it.

I have heard about the project at the big pond property. I haven't seen plans, I find it hard to imagine 36 buildings on that property. I have looked at it on the county GIS site...I'm assuming the buildings will right right along Cawana.

What are the best resturaunts to eat at for a decent price?