lakelady
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Lake Martin Gains Fame as Getaway
« on: May 3rd, 2004, 5:43pm » |
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Just found this article today. My boss, Dave Commander is quoted.
Birmingham News (AL)
LAKE MARTIN GAINS FAME AS GETAWAY
ON WATERFRONT, RESIDENTS FIND PEACE AND PROFIT
February 20, 2004
Section: News
Page: 1-A
Illustration: A Newsmap accompanied this article.
MIKE CASON News staff writer
Kelly House of Montgomery smelled profit, as well as new opportunities for family fun, when she plunked down money for a run-down cabin on Lake Martin.
Today, the profit potential of her second home seems less important.
"I bought it and thought I would resell it. But my husband and my kids have enjoyed it so much they would die if I sold it," said House, whose cabin is near Anchor Bay on the southern end of the sprawling, 44,000-acre lake.
Lake Martin, created in the 1920s when Alabama Power Co. built a dam on the Tallapoosa River near the Tallapoosa-Elmore county line, for decades has drawn fishermen, boaters and others seeking quiet getaways. Now, the lake is becoming increasingly popular as a site for second homes.
The lake has drawn attention from national publications and is luring more people from the Atlanta area and elsewhere out of state, observers say.
In September, SmartMoney magazine recognized Lake Martin as one of five "Wide Open Spaces" where "great escapes" are still affordable. Lake The lake was listed alongside Saugerties, N.Y., the White Mountains of Arizona, Los Osos, Calif., and LaPorte County, Ind.
"You can take your pick of lakeside properties from 800-square-foot, $150,000 cabins with two bedrooms and two bathrooms to 7,000-square-foot $5 million homes with six bedrooms, six baths and a couple acres," the magazine reported.
The article said the ideal spot for a second-home market is two to three hours from a metropolitan area. Lake Martin is well within that range from Atlanta, Birmingham and Montgomery.
Last April, EscapeHomes.com listed Lake Martin among the nation's 10 "emerging markets" for second homes.
EscapeHomes.com, a California-based Web site founded in 1998, chose sites based on the volume of inquiries about those locations and some follow-up research, said Amanda Sturges, director of operations. Sturges said she did not know how many inquiries EscapeHomes.com has received about Lake Martin.
Other factors included in placing the sites on the list include affordability and proximity to recreation and metropolitan areas, Sturges said.
Other "emerging markets" listed were Burnside, Ky.; Caribou, Maine; Ely, Minn.; Island Park, Idaho; Ketchikan, Alaska; St. George, Utah; Sisters, Ore.; Waterville Valley, N.H.; and White Mountains, Ariz.
"We're trying to uncover places that most people have never heard of," Sturges said.
Value rising
Patti Richardson, property appraiser for the Talladega County Revenue Department, said the value of second homes on the lake is generally increasing at about 10 percent a year. That varies widely, Richardson said, based on the quality of the property.
"Some are increasing 20 percent a year," Richardson said. "Others are just stable because there are so many new developments that people have a lot more to choose from than they used to."
For decades, Lake Martin's tree-covered, sloping banks have been dotted with cabins accessible by winding dirt roads. Today the lake has about a half dozen gated communities that offer second-home buyers security, boat launches, boat trailer storage, tennis courts and other amenities, Richardson said.
The most visible commercial presence in the emerging Lake Martin real estate market is Russell Lands Inc., which owns about one-third of the lake's 750 miles of shoreline.
Dave Commander, vice president of Russell Lands, said lake property is appreciating by at least 5 percent to 10 percent a year.
"One of the reasons it's so popular is that it's one of the clearest and cleanest lakes," Commander said. "It's relatively deep, about 88 feet on average. That's important because boats will stir up the bottom if it's not deep and it won't look as clean."
Carl Hopson of Montgomery is a real estate agent who also lives on the lake. He has noticed the increasingly wide appeal of the lake and recently hosted prospective buyers from Key Largo, Fla.
"When the stock market kind of fell on its rear end, we had people coming to the lake trying to roll money out of the stock market," Hopson said. "People were pulling money out and putting it into second homes and lake property."
That trend persists, Hopson said, because the lake property isn't subject to the whims of a bear market. "We haven't had a bad year," Hopson said.
Undeveloped shoreline
Although Lake Martin is beginning to attract more attention, Hopson said the relatively remote environment is still a major part of its appeal.
"If you're here on a Saturday, you wouldn't believe that it's as private as it is" during the week, Hopson said. "You can almost have it by yourself. It's just amazing. There are still hundreds of miles of undeveloped shoreline. You get in a boat and you might go somewhere and wonder if anybody has ever been there before."
Commander said only about one-third of the shoreline has been developed.
House said she's spent about $60,000 making improvements to her lake home, which now includes a boathouse, deck and pier.
"We gutted it. We took out three Dumpster loads (of old material). There was nothing left but the exterior walls and the foundation," House said.
There's nothing complicated about Lake Martin's appeal, House said. Her daughter, 16, likes to tube and ride around in the boat with her friends. Her son, 14, likes to wakeboard, a hobby her husband, a lifelong skier, is also getting the hang of.
Mostly, they just like being together on the water. They have a couple of favorite lakeside restaurants that are accessible by boat.
"You can find us there probably every Friday and Saturday night," House said.
Susan Foy, director of the Alexander City Chamber of Commerce, has been around Lake Martin all her 41 years. Her family has used the same Russell Lands rental cabin in the Willow Point area that it enjoyed when she was a child.
"I think in the last few years we've seen an increase in second homes being purchased on the lake, due No. 1 to the recognition Lake Martin has received as a destination," Foy said. "We're seeing an influx of people from Atlanta in addition to Birmingham and Montgomery."
Pat Dye Jr., son of the former Auburn football coach, is a sports agent who lives in Atlanta and owns a second home on Lake Martin.
"I fell in love with the place when I was going to college in the 1980s," Dye said. "I remember thinking that one day when I grow up I want to have a place there. It hasn't lost any of its shine for me."
Dye said Lake Martin should continue to attract second home buyers from the Atlanta area, in part because it's much less congested than Lake Lanier north of Atlanta.
Foy said there is a growing cottage industry that caters to the needs of those who own second homes on the lake.
"They do everything from opening up cabins on the weekend to making sure towels are clean to putting the boat in the water and cutting grass," Foy said.
At the time the lake opened in 1926, it was the largest artificially made body of water in the world, said Michael Sznajderman, communications specialist for Alabama Power. The power company owns the land beneath the lake, the islands on the lake and about 20,000 acres around the lake, Sznajderman said. Much of that land is near the dam or in other areas that will remain in a natural state, he said. The company also leases about 300 lakefront lots and has another 300 acres that can be developed over time.
Alabama Power also operates a public park and provides eight public boat ramps on the lake.
Lake Martin is named after Thomas Martin, a Montgomery attorney who helped start the company and served as president from 1920 to 1949 and CEO from 1949 to 1963.
Lake Martin is becoming increasingly popular as a site for second homes. This one is in the Russell Lands Inc. development called "The Ridge." Russell Lands Inc. owns about one-third of the lake's 750 miles of shoreline.
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