Fulfilling a Need.

The 1950’s/60’s saw the birth of the bigger is better mantra that has become the nation’s obsession ever since. Now, though, a movement is afoot and unfulfilled “consumers” are beginning to understand that mantra as hollow and are replacing it with smaller is better. We are not consumers, we are people. Community connection is longed for and a belief in more intentional living is being embraced. Richness is not found in possessions but in relationships.

Thus the idea for 1010 Oglethorpe was born. Designed to be a “pocket neighborhood", our community features various living spaces all centered around a stately turn of the century foursquare home that has been thoughtfully retrofitted to house a community gathering space and a couple more living options to go along with our cottages, quads, carriage houses, and bungalows.

Our residences are smaller, well-designed, more affordably priced, and offer a rare opportunity to live together in a setting that immediately fosters connection, whenever you want, literally and figuratively. 1010 Oglethorpe is an owner-occupied community because you deserve an opportunity to be more enfranchised in the community you chose to make awesome. That, and building wealth through homeownership is critical to having more agency in your life, and no one likes others making decisions for them.

  • 1010 Oglethorpe is a pocket neighborhood being constructed on the corner of Oglethorpe Avenue and Knottingham Drive in Athens, GA. The 1.85-acre site is currently occupied by a c.1917 stately, brick foursquare style house (which we’ll be remodeling) and an out-building in disrepair. The size of the parcel is unique for the neighborhood, creating an opportunity not commonly found without assembling several lots together. The site boasts an amazing location inside “The Loop” and is walking/biking distance to immediate daily needs and only a half-mile from UGA’s Health Science Campus/Medical School in Normaltown, and all that neighborhood has to offer, with Downtown and UGA’s Main Campus just beyond that. We could not resist the opportunity to do something special with this property.

    This community is simply called 1010 Oglethorpe as an homage to the original address. 1010 will include various housing options, including detached cottages, arranged around a community green as a cottage court, two quads up front, flanking and matching the style and scale of the existing grand dame of a house, two carriage houses, two attached cottages, and a quaint bungalow.

    The existing house will be preserved and converted into one or two flats and a commonly owned community gathering space that will be unlike any neighborhood “club house” you could imagine. With attractive interior spaces only found in old homes, a super cool granite screened porch, outdoor patio/fire pit, and community veggie garden, this gathering space will be 1010’s heartbeat all year long.

    Note: All of 1010 Oglethorpe is an investor-free zone. Residences will be offered only for purchase by owner-occupiers. Our goal is to create homeownership opportunities by selling in a price range that makes ownership a possibility for more than just those who can currently afford what is rapidly becoming an out of reach Athens real estate market. While we can’t give these homes away, we intend to do our part to make a dream a reality for 24 homeowners wanting to be more vested in the community they call home. Join Us.

  • Over the course of the past decade or so, various discussions emerged in planning, community design, and housing circles regarding the lack of smaller, attainably priced housing, and the term “missing middle housing” started to surface here and there in that collective discussion on housing affordability and availability. Various forms of housing such as multiplex homes, bungalow courts and live/work units were once commonplace and gracefully embedded into neighborhoods, forming a broad spectrum of housing options beyond single-family detached houses and apartment complexes, all at various price points.

    This type of construction suddenly faded in the nation as questionable zoning laws were put in place to forbid residential construction of anything other than mid-rise apartment buildings in city centers and then residential single family homes in the immediate areas outlying the urban core and beyond. The former “in between” housing options went missing, and along with it the variety of residential ownership opportunities for people of more limited means or those just not wanting to own a big home on a big lot.

    Some critics began to see these inexplicably restrictive zoning ordinances as arbitrary at best and blatantly racist/classist at worst. Other laws being instituted about the same time throughout much of the nation made the latter explanation all the more believable. If you couldn’t afford to buy a single family suburban home on a large tract of land, then either you rented an apartment or you were pretty much out of luck. Residential ownership opportunities vanished for many people of various socioeconomic backgrounds, citizens who otherwise could have purchased a modestly priced and sized property to live in and use to establish wealth, like so many Americans before them had done.

  • A very exciting movement is afoot nationally, and it’s beginning in smaller cities. In an effort to address a nation-wide housing crisis, local governments have been abolishing unfair zoning rules, leveling the playing field for all those seeking the opportunity to own property, specifically their own home. The definition of “home” has once again begun to no longer mean a single family detached house on a large lot.

    A home is a place, not a thing, and more and more municipalities have started to re-allow the construction of smaller homes on smaller parcels without a required amount of road frontage and without a suspiciously high minimum square footage requirement. A duplex might be built next to a quadplex, and those both might be built next to two larger houses, next to a six unit condo, all harmoniously creating a thriving community enjoyable by all. Turns out that “missing middle housing” has been found, buried for decades under mounds of zoning rules that likely were intentionally set up for someone’s benefit at the expense of others. Not anymore, and that’s why you are reading this!