LOL! One's coming to your neighborhood soooonnnnn Hank!!!

Donna

I heard a Dollar Store outlet was planned called "Half a Buck"? Any truth to that?

Hank

The exit at Rope Mill off of 575N has been approved and construction should start sometime within the next year. Although Cousins Properties scraped The Avenues at Ridgewalk, they are still showing on their website that there will be an upscale outlet center, The Outlet Shoppes At Atlanta, will be built there and are predicting the opening date as of Spring 2011. Hopefully it will go through and when it does I believe we will see improvements in property values around the area as well. Foreclosures have definitely hurt the property values in Cherokee County in most neighborhoods as well as unfinished neighborhoods but all are symptons of the current economy. The County approved $90 million for new parks and greenspace and are working to obtain property as we speak which is great for our current residents and should help attract new residents in the future. Cherokee Schools are some of the best in the area and one, Sequoyah High School, has been selected for the 5th straight year by Newsweek magazine as one of the top country's public schools.There are a lot of great reasons to live in Cherokee and now is an AWESOME time to buy with all the great deals out there! Our real estate team is familiar not only with resales but new homes, land and development, lake and farm properties and commercial.

The City of Woodstock and the GA DOT is currently meeting with property owners who abut the proposed clover interchange at Rope Mill. They expect to begin contruction early 2010. Once that begins, we will probably see the commercial sites begin to show activity. Woodstock has agreed to pay the developer of Ridgewalk (Bill Butler) almost 1/2 Mil reimbursement for the deveopment of the property. Also Greenprints, an agency within the City, has come up with a plan for bike paths from Downtown Woodstock to Blankets Creek. This will go through the Ridgewalk area. There is also discussion regarding the SW corner of I-575 and Sixes. Holly Springs, Cherokee County & Woodstock are looking at a plan being offered that will creat a Greenway Cultural Center on the empty land. This would include an outlet mall, a convention center, an amphiteatre, fine dining restaurants and trails connecting to Blankets Creek and Olde Rose Mill Park bike trails. I am a local Realtor with Solid Source Realty and I agree with David -- I saw people get burned in S Florida when they bought into new subdivisions. When the subs weren't finished out, and the housing bust hit in the early 90's, builders ended up either building cheaper home (thus lowering the home values) or tipped over and were replaced by a second builder who built cheaper homes. I think you're always better off either buying in a finished, or almost finished, subdivision. You also should look at purchasing on the 'inside' of the subdivision. That way, you know what's going to be behind your. There are plenty of great buys out there now for homes in subdivisions which were finished out 2000 through 2007.

Yes, sometime between 2009 thru eternity! Since I live here and drive by it every day and have seen nothing but dirt moved in the past 5 years, who knows? And yes, Hank is right, the speed traps stink! Who can possibly drive modern cars 25 MPH. Makes absolute NO sense. Downtown Woodstock is also a bust.. but we are getting a PURE in place of where the Mexican Cantina was suppose to go. Downtown may be a fun place to hang out, but only until 10PM b/c everyone around here seems to go to bed that early or something. I guess that tells you Woodstock is a great family friendly place to be and you can always drive to Buckhead for nightlife if you want. I would personally avoid the new development areas.. and buy in established neighborhoods. I could recommend a few if you need. Obviously, I chose to live here for a reason and I'm in the business.

Sincerely,
David Brower, Assistant Manager/Realtor
Crye-Leike Realtors
678-982-9600
david@davidwbrower.com

The developer has filed for bankruptcy and until that gets hashed out things will stand still. You also heard that plans for "The Avenue" (upscale shopping) have been scrapped and it's very likely the planned exit of 575 between Towne Lake and Sixes will be scrapped as well...toss in the speed traps through "downtown" Woodstock and it's clear that the area is in a bit of a funk.

It's going to be a while before things stablize in that area.

Hank