Local & State Headlines

Group breaks ground on St. John's project

• Former military housing is being renovated and sold individually to homeowners by a church-sponsored group.

Susan McCord

ALBANY – The latest phase in the life of a former East Albany military housing complex was christened, lauded and praised in a groundbreaking Monday on a development that organizers say may be ready for residents this year.

Dozens of elected officials and a large group of Greater Second Mount Olive Baptist Church members praised a "faith-based," "public-private partnership" that has transformed Boyett Village into St. John's Estate, the new name for a group of 319 homes and duplexes encircled by Georgia Avenue, and presently a barbed-wire fence, at the north end of Maple Street.

Built in the 1950s as housing for Turner Air Force Base and later transferred to Marine Corps Logistics Base-Albany, MCLB officials announced in 1995 the housing community would be sold. By 2005, Mount Olive Community Outreach Center, an outgrowth of Greater Second Mount Olive Baptist Church, had acquired much of Boyett, and that same year 26 families fleeing Hurricane Katrina were housed there.

The community, left by the military, "has been transformed into this, what I like to refer to as the miracle of Albany, Georgia," said Mayor Willie Adams. "It shows what faith-based activities can accomplish.

"We appreciate you for being successful, and that's the way it should be."

Albany Ward 1 City Commissioner Jon Howard said the development will increase the tax base and the population in East Albany. "Thank you for having a vision," Howard said.

The 319 units, 119 of which are in Howard's district, have always been exempt from property taxes as federal property and church property.

Ward 2 City Commissioner Dorothy Hubbard said participants in the effort showed "what being a Christian is all about. We have come this far by faith," she said. "He hasn't failed us yet."

Ward 3 Commissioner Morris Gurr said he preferred to say "the neighborhood has been redeemed." During the mid-1990s, military friends likened it to "little Bosnia," he said. "You never knew what was going to happen."

Ward 6 Commissioner Tommie Postell said he was proud to be a part of the effort and would be "proud to work with it again when I am re-elected." Postell as well as Howard and Adams face opposition in the NOv. 6 election.

The development is not the first by the outreach center, led the Rev. Lorenzo Heard, pastor of Greater Second Mount Olive Baptist Church.

The involvement of a development firm, SJE, was critical to its success, Heard said.

SJE came in to "infuse some extra money to make the deal a reality," said Heard, introducing SJE's Ed Brewster.

Negotiations, including last-minute involvements with Prudential of Georgia and Planters First Bank, have made for "quite a ride," Brewster said, "that's going to allow 300 people to get into new homes."

"We've been all over the country trying to find money," said Heard, when Atlanta bankers referred them to Planters First in Cordele, whose financing "save the deal," Heard said.

Planters First's Steve Bridges had asked that they all pray first before signing stacks of contracts with SJE in Atlanta, Heard said.

"Praise the Lord. Hallelujah," Bridges said to the group. "We're just grateful to be a part of it, to partner up with the investors ... It's divine and it wouldn't have happened without the Lord's help."

The fences around Boyett will be removed and designers are looking to create a gated community of 300 homes for all ages, Heard said.

Loan applications for the homes, price in the low $70,000s are being accepted and several families have already applied, Heard said.

Boyett's empty swimming pool, tennis, basketball and racquetball courts, park, common area and even its neighborhood store will be "totally refurbished," Heard said.

SJE hopes to begin housing families in the duplex and single-family units of three and four bedrooms by the end of the year, he said.

"We hope to have people spend their first Christmas here," Heard said.

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