About a year ago, Cody Coleman moved his business, Elevation Real Estate Group, to a building on Fifth Street South in downtown Columbus.
If all goes to plan, his new home will soon sit walking distance from his office.
“I already eat, work and shop downtown,” said Coleman, who now lives in New Hope. “I feel like making the decision to live there was easy.”
Coleman was among the first to put down a deposit for a lot in the planned Parkview neighborhood, where the Friendly City Development group is reimagining five blighted blocks east of the Roger Short Soccer Complex known historically as Burns Bottom.
As of early October – less than a month since developers unveiled their plans for the mixed use neighborhood and made 28 residential lots available – 12 were already snapped up. Lots are priced from $48,000 to $80,000.
“I love the vision the developers have for that area,” Coleman said. “It has all the amenities that you could want. The fact it will overlook the (soccer complex), that’s a beautiful setting. … I’m thankful I was able to get in on the front end. I know all of us that I’m aware of who are purchasing lots are ready for the ground to be build-ready.”
Friendly City Development, led by Starkville developer Saunders Ramsey and brothers Nic and Garrett Parish with Burns Dirt Construction in Columbus, agreed in August to purchase 77 lots in Burns Bottom for $800,000 from the Columbus Redevelopment Authority.
The developers also have an exclusive 4 1/2-year option to purchase a handful of additional lots north of Burns Bottom for $350,000. Those could draw commercial development to Parkview.
The CRA has committed spending $5.2 million – obtained from state and federal sources – on infrastructure and ground prep work at the site before Friendly City officially takes possession. Houses could start popping up as soon as 2027.
At a public meeting in September at Rosenzweig Arts Center, which 80 area residents attended, the developers touted a neighborhood of access, walkability and “porch culture,” where houses would face each other in an environment where residents would feel encouraged to know their neighbors.
Modeled from Southside Columbus, but newer, the developers will allow various styles of homes possible for Parkview, including creole, acadian and French colonial-inspired, among others. While all homes must be built to certain aesthetic standards, they won’t all have to fall in the same size or price range.
“We will not use the word subdivision. This is not a subdivision,” Ramsey said during the public meeting. “… This is a neighborhood (and) we want to enhance what you’ve already done in Columbus.”
Ramsey has seen success with a similar concept at Adelaide, a development named for his grandmother and located off South Montgomery Street in Starkville. The neighborhood, featured in the Spring 2019 edition of Progress, was first planned in 2013 and is well into its third phase, with homes built on about 70 of the 96 available lots.
So far, Ramsey said, the response to Parkview has been similar to when Adelaide lots came available.
“It has been pleasantly surprising to see excitement from the local community,” Ramsey said. “It confirms our belief that good design, good planning and a willing community can make a special place.”
Helen Pridmore watched Adelaide come together from the ground up.
Her business, Lighting Unlimited in Columbus, installed the post lights at Adelaide when the development started and also worked in many of the homes built there.
“It is so well thought out,” Helen said of the development. (Ramsey) had a lot of parameters to make sure people didn’t just come in and build houses that would make the rest of the houses not appraise as high. If you build five great houses, then somebody comes in and plops down a house that has windows too small or just isn’t built as nicely, it drags the whole neighborhood down.”
When Helen and her husband Scott Pridmore left their 145-year-old home on College Street where they had lived for 18 years, Helen said they both believed one day building a home in Burns Bottom was “inevitable.”
Both were adamant about staying downtown. But they wanted something new and were content with living in an apartment until that opportunity arose.
Helen’s life changed suddenly, when Scott died in November. Meanwhile, even after a summer 2024 announcement the CRA was negotiating with Friendly City Development, no news on that front seemed forthcoming.
“I was starting to get antsy,” Helen said, even considering moving to an older rental house she owns instead.
Shortly after the Parkview deal was announced, Helen received a text from Ramsey.
“Hey. You ready?” it read.
It came at the right time, and Helen was the first to put down a deposit for a lot.
“I’m very excited about it,” she said.
Helen is also certain the excitement will continue for others as Parkview’s development progresses.
“Everybody poo poos every good thing that people try to do in Columbus,” she said. “I have complete and total faith in Saunders and the Parishes that they are going to do this right.”
STORY BY ZACK PLAIR
COLEMAN PORTRAIT BY MCKELLAR PROFFITT
PRIDMORE PORTRAIT BY DEANNA ROBINSON
OTHER PHOTOS BY GADE CHAMBLEE