$1.5 Billion Real Estate Investment For Eastern Alabama
A rural swath of eastern Alabama could become the next big thing among those approaching their golden years, as a Georgia developer plans a major retirement haven straddling the Chattahoochee River.
By 2018, West Point, Ga.-based Greater Valley Group plans to invest $1.5 billion toward that vision in communities clustered around Interstate 85 on the Alabama-Georgia line.
But much of the work has already started in Alabama, as the firm’s short-term goals have been spurred on by the new Kia auto assembly plant in West Point.
New houses, apartment complexes, hotels and retail development are popping up primarily in and around the Chambers County cities of Valley, Lanett and LaFayette, transforming an area that was hobbled by the fading textile industry.
Greater Valley Group Chief Executive Walter Shealy cites several factors that support the firm’s long-range plans:the area is about 90 minutes from an international airport and cultural scene in Atlanta, and close to recreational outings on the river and the 26,000-acre West Point Lake.
There’s also a military base and medical facilities in nearby Fort Benning, Ga., along with educational opportunities at Auburn University and Columbus State University.
And, Shealy added, the region largely avoids icy winters and the stifling summer humidity of lower Alabama and Georgia.
“We’re in the golden triangle — just below the freeze line and above the gnat line,” he said.
Greater Valley Group, an affiliate of the telecommunications firm ITC Holding Co., was eyeing real estate projects across the country before Kia announced plans to build the West Point factory in 2006.
The move made the firm refocus everything on its home base while also accelerating the retirement development that Shealy had envisioned with his former college pal and chairman of Greater Valley Group, Cam Lanier.
Lanier’s company, ITC Holding Co., has a long history of providing early funding for telecommunications firms such as MindSpring, Knology, Powertel and ITC-DeltaCom.
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