Poteet

Multifamily developers in Savannah, Georgia, have been working overtime, building new apartments in all areas of the city, according to Jackie Poteet, president/ owner of Augusta Apartment Finders Inc. and Marjac Publications Inc. Each project contains large apartment homes ranging from one-bedroom, 835-square-foot units to three-bedroom units with 1,532 square feet and up. These gated communities feature putting greens, executive business centers pre-wired for high-speed Internet access, car care centers, clothes care centers, inline and detached garages, and fitness centers.

Wilmington Island has had the most number of apartment homes built. Merry Land & Investment Company of Augusta, Georgia, built the 241-unit Merritt at Whitemarsh in two phases. Also, United Residential Properties developed Walton Park, a 220-unit project. Hathaway of Macon, Georgia, constructed Walton Park.

“Wilmington Island is struggling to absorb all of these new units, along with the existing units,” Poteet notes. “Overall occupancy is between 86 and 88 percent.”

The announcement of the proposed DaimlerChrysler plant in Pooler, Georgia, located off of Interstate 95 near the airport, has created a lot of activity. The new plant will employ about 3,000 people, and it is anticipated that there will be a large number of suppliers that will create jobs within a 100-mile radius. This will no doubt fuel new multifamily development in this area. Merry Land & Investment recently finished The Preserve at Godley Station, a 380-unit project in the Pooler area. There are approximately 800 proposed units for the area around interstates 95 and 16 in Pooler.

A new developer to the Savannah market, Palms Associates Real Estate Management-Development, is completing the development of Fords Pointe, a 260-luxury unit project off of U.S. 17 Coastal Highway near I-95 south and Highway 204 (Abercorn).

“There has been tremendous growth in the multifamily market this past year, but due to the events of September 11, a slow economy and the rise in home-buying due to low interest rates, the vacancy rate still remains at 10 percent,” says Poteet.

The overall vacancy rate for the Savannah market area is 10.6 percent. “Most all apartments have and still are experiencing slow traffic with most of that being unqualified,” she continues. “Evictions are still high. I continue to see a lot of free rent specials offered. The February overall occupancy was 88.4 percent for the Savannah area. When you have so many new apartments being built in any market area, the existing Class A apartments suffer due to the new apartments offering specials. However, taking everything into consideration, I still feel that Savannah has not done too badly.”


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