HAHIRA — Harveys supermarket will be building a store in Hahira on Highway 122, part of a much larger development that has the small city in a buzz.

Plans for the Gateway to Hahira project include the popular grocery store plus dozens of retailers, restaurants, and other commercial businesses. The Harveys will be built on the site of the former Pick’In Park, as Developer Avery Walden of Nextstep Development purchased the 90 acres on both sides of Highway 122 from longtime owner Wilby Coleman.

In addition to the commercial aspect of the Gateway, single family homes, villa duplexes and apartments are a part of the overall development plans.

Hahira Mayor Wayne Bullard said, “I think it will be a good thing for the city. It’ll bring more industry in here. Harveys will be good and it will bring folks from all out in the country to town that don’t come now and they don’t know what we’ve got here.”

Bullard said the development won’t hurt the existing businesses but will help them as more people begin coming to the city.

According to Walden, he and others have been working on the concept for more than two years, and the sale closed on the property in December of 2008.

“We are doing this because we really want to boost Hahira and the Exit 29 area. There were 90 acres sitting in the city limits that were undeveloped, and the DOT (Department of Transportation) is putting a road through it, so this is a perfect opportunity to extend Hahira,” he said.

“We want very much to offer services to the northern part of Lowndes County. There’s rapid growth there, and we have the opportunity to support the area so that people don’t have to drive all the way down to the mall exit to get what they need.”

According to ERA Joyner Realtor J.D. Yeager, who is listing the entire Gateway project, there are many reasons for starting a large scale development at this time.

“The economy is in stage one of recovery. We are already seeing it coming back, so this is perfect timing for the development,” he said.

According to Yeager, the Gateway project will be a hub for north Lowndes County, east Brooks County, and south Cook and Berrien counties, in addition to the traffic off Interstate 75.

The construction on the 21,000-square-foot Harveys will begin in September/October of this year, and other phases of the development are already underway. Houses in the back portion of the development in the Waters Edge North single family development are already being constructed. According to Yeager, they are in the “craftsman” style and will be in what is now the most desired price range, beginning at $108,000, but staying less than $170,000.

“It’s a traditional neighborhood design in an urban environment,” said Walden, “and we were fortunate to have the expertise of Mike Kirkland of Kirkland Urban Design Services in planning the project.”

While the Harveys and other commercial properties will be on the south side of Highway 122, the residential portion and a village area will be located to the north. Directly off the highway will be a self storage facility, followed by commercial businesses and then the entrance to the Town Centre. Patterned like a village square, the town center will be a shopping haven of retailers with buildings in the style that is already present in downtown Hahira.

“We want to extend what’s already in downtown to there. The buildings will look very similar,” Walden said.

Plans for a 76-unit upscale apartment complex are already underway, and future plans include a large pond in the center of the residential area in addition to a hotel at some point in the future.

The DOT will be realigning Union Road across the highway when it moves the on and off ramps on I-75, and the development is planned around that change, which is scheduled before 2014.

Walden said he has also committed two acres to the city of Hahira to build a senior citizen center on, and he praised the city leadership for their assistance through the planning process.

“The old stigma that Hahira doesn’t want development is gone. The city is working with me to make this happen. They understand that Hahira needs commercial growth in order to support the city and the residential growth,” said Walden.

Jonathan Sumner, city manager of Hahira, said the city has been included in all of the planning of the project so far. “We look forward to working with the developers for the economic benefit for the citizens. We haven’t received any figures in terms of jobs and investment yet, they’re still working on it, but our LOST (Local Option Sales Tax) and tax digest are going to be impacted, certainly tremendously for a small community like Hahira.”

For more information concerning the Gateway to Hahira project, contact J. D. Yeager or Clint Joyner at ERA Joyner Realty or Avery Walden at Nextstep.



Great Hahira Pick-In

For many South Georgians, the site of the new Harveys is better known as the location of the Great Hahira Pick-In. From the early 1980s to the mid-1990s, Wilby and Gloria Coleman of Valdosta, their family and a group of friends, sponsored an annual bluegrass festival at the site. The Pick-In featured a weekend of bluegrass bands on the mountain stage as well as pickers and grinners in camp sites throughout the land. Some participants arrived several days in advance of the shows to camp on the land and get into the Pick-In frame of mind. Citing falling revenues, organizers ended the Pick-Ins in the mid-1990s.

By Assistant Managing Editor Dean Poling.