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If you have an extra $250,000 lying around, or an extra $1.8 million, two large residential tracts currently are on the market around Central State Hospital.
Both tracts sit on the edge of the old Central State campus. The largest tract is being marketed as the Oconee Riverfront Development, and it checks in at 157 acres and includes roughly one mile of riverfront. The asking price is $1.8 million.
"There is a significant, significant amount of river frontage along that property. It features several high bluffs and beautiful spots," said Walter Reynolds, executive director of the Central State Hospital Redevelopment Authority. "Also, there is already a tremendous amount of infrastructure already in place (in terms of electricity and plumbing."
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According to the "location description" in the official property listing on Fickling & Company's website, the "homes are located off the following roads:
• Vinson Highway
• Riverside Dr
• Riverside Annex Drive
• Riverbend Drive
• Riverbend Annex Drive
• Cox Circle
• Ft Wilkinson Road
• Youngblood Circle
• Rock Hill Street"
Added the listing:
"This Oconee Riverfront Development is a former subdivision with 54 existing homes. The homes need renovating and is ideal for a developer to create a new updated subdivision or a rental community. The Oconee Riverfront Development is located in the Mixed-Use Renaissance Park."
The property being marketed includes 54 aging brick homes, many of which presumably will be torn down. Most were built in the 1950s and 1960s, and CSH administrators at the time were in desperate need of medical doctors. The houses were built as a perk to recruit new doctors, hence the term "doctors houses." Many of those doctors ultimately came from Cuba following the Castro Revolution and the botched Bay of Pigs invasion.
However, as mental health trends moved in the direction of group homes and the de-institution of large mental hospitals, the homes gradually grew into a state of disrepair. Most haven't been occupied in years.
Meanwhile, the second tract being listed on Fickling's website is being called the "400 Linden Court" property. Located roughly halfway between the Hardwick Post Office and the CSH Auditorium, it includes "six cottages, needing renovations, with hardwood floors and masonry fireplaces." Kudzu has gotten the best of most of the "cottages" over the years, and all are currently vacant. All six homes are three bedrooms and two bathrooms. The asking price is $250,000, an average of or an average of $41,667 per pop.
Both tracts currently are owned by the CSH Redevelopment Authority, which is self-sustaining and no longer receives any direct funding from the city or county governments. The tracts were deeded over to the Authority by the state of Georgia several years ago.
