One of the last undeveloped midtown Columbus properties on Macon/Wynnton corridor is sold
One of the last undeveloped properties along the Macon Road and Wynnton Road corridor in midtown Columbus has been sold.
The four parcels — 1500 Dixon Drive, 1502 Dixon Drive, 1512 Dixon Drive and 1507 Wells Drive — comprise 1.51 acres and are zoned as RMF2, which is multifamily residential with a maximum density of 16.5 units per acre. That computes to a limit of 24 units on the property.
Bob Dowdy of Columbus sold the property to Kontar Howell of Montgomery, Alabama, for $360,000, Jed Harris of Century 21 Premier Real Estate told the Ledger-Enquirer. Harris represented both sides of the transaction.
The property was listed for $389,900 when it went up for sale in February 2021, but it’s been on and off the market for at least 20 years, Harris said.
“I’m just pleased that it worked out,” he said. “… He got pretty close to the asking price.”
The L-E didn’t reach Howell for comment before publication. He is listed as the registered agent for Viking Commercial Construction.
History of the property
The 2021 values of the parcels, according to Muscogee County property records, were:
- $54,890 for 0.3 acres at 1500 Dixon Drive
- $51,390 for 0.54 acres at 1507 Wells Drive
- $45,840 for 0.37 acres at 1512 Dixon Drive
- $44,420 for 0.3 acres at 1502 Dixon Drive.
The property was the site of four apartment buildings containing a total of 14 units when Dowdy bought it for approximately $135,000 and the adjacent lot for approximately $45,000 more than 30 years ago, he told the L-E.
Dowdy had the apartments torn down about 10 years ago after a tenant who was moving out “was full of fleas,” he said. “She didn’t know she was being bit by them. She must have had 50 or 60 bites on her, and I never, ever was able to get my wife over there to come back and help me clean again. So (the apartments) became more of a problem than income.”
Now, he is relieved to finally reach agreement with a buyer.
“At my age (82), it was best to sell it while I could do the paperwork and such,” he said. “… I didn’t want to leave it to (his wife) to have to deal with it.”
It was challenging to sell the property, Harris said, mainly because developers typically seek larger parcels.
“A lot of them have told me they’re not interested in anything less than 10 acres,” he said.
Although the property backs up to Macon Road, Harris said, the two curb cuts for driveway entrances are on Dixon Drive.
“I hope it will be an asset to midtown Columbus,” he said.
Reaction to the sale
So does Julio Portillo, executive director of MidTown Inc., the nonprofit organization working to sustain and enhance the area’s neighborhoods and businesses.
Cautioning that he doesn’t know Howell’s plan for the property, Portillo sees a “big gap in workforce-ready housing” for folks earning $35,000-$45,000 per year. That’s why he hopes the developer constructs apartments with rents for less than $1,000 per month.
“Anytime there’s an opportunity for growth in midtown, we cherish it,” he said. “We get excited about it. It’s something where we hope we can all work together to really bring value to what they’re doing and set a precedent so we can get more investment in midtown.”
His biggest concern, Portillo said, is the quality of the development as well as its density and how it would affect parking and traffic.
“We don’t want someone who builds low-quality apartments, manages them for one or two years, then sells them and leaves,” he said. “Then they start dilapidating.”
Nope, not the Hilton property
Harris laughed when he recalled the reaction from a friend after he posted the transaction on his Facebook page. The assumption was that the land in the transaction is the controversial Hilton property across Dixon Drive.
Those 5.79 acres at 2551 Wynnton Road, bordered by Hilton Avenue, 15th Street and Dixon Drive, also are zoned as RMF2, meaning as many as 95 apartment units may be constructed there. Known as the Hilton property, it is owned by the Eakle family and is for sale by owner.
Grandin Eakle, who previously told the L-E his family has owned the property for more than 100 years, declined to comment for this story.
The Hilton property, which included an antebellum mansion known as the Hilton House, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. It was a setting in the John Wayne movie “The Green Berets” and burned down in 1983. The thick growth of hardwoods makes the property an urban forest now, part of the Hillcrest-Wildwood Circle Historic District.
Four years ago, letters from a grassroots group called Help Save Hilton and then-Mayor Teresa Tomlinson, along with a resolution from Columbus Council, convinced the Georgia Department of Community Affairs to deny Atlanta-based developer TBG Residential access to the low-income housing tax credits it sought to help finance its plan for an 84-unit apartment complex.
Last year, MidTown Inc. tried to by the Hilton property for an envisioned mixed-use development of retail shops, green space and housing. But they didn’t raise enough money or negotiate the owners down from the price of $2.5 million, Portillo said.
Muscogee County records show the Hilton property’s 2021 value was $320,890. The sale of the 1.51 acres across the street at Dixon and Wells for $360,000 is $238,411 per acre. At that rate, the market indicates a workable price for the Hilton property would be around $1.4 million.
This story was originally published April 25, 2022 at 10:02 AM.
