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.