Property developers looking to build apartments in downtown Milledgeville

MILLEDGEVILLE, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Milledgeville residents will start to see construction soon on the outskirts of downtown. 

A property developer is looking to create new student housing where rundown houses currently sit. 

“We don’t go looking for a blighted property,” Gary Spillers, with JML Investments said. 

Call it a coincidence. 

“What we go looking for is an opportunity, and sometimes there’s a blighted property there,” Spillers said. 

He and his team are looking to seize those opportunities. 

The group has plans on building a new apartment complex on Elbert and Macintosh Streets for students. 

“We’ve been looking for good properties around Milledgeville that will tie in and make good properties for students,” Spillers said. 

Developers have plans to turn all of this into a housing unit for students at nearby colleges here in Milledgeville. They say once it’s all done it’ll be one of the closest ones to campus. 

Spillers says when the project, called “The Lodge at Mc and Elbert”, is finished it will be close to both Georgia Military College and GCSU. 

“It’s something that the community actually looks forward to. It’s something that they embrace and accept,” Mayor Richard Bentley said. 

Bentley says it’s important that the city takes advantage of these opportunities when they come. 

“I think that the proximity of the college with this piece of property, the fact that it’s already mixed use in and around there, makes it perfect for development,” Bentley said. 

The projected $6 million unit will house potentially 120 students, and it cost the city a dime. 

Spillers says the property taxes alone should in fact bring the city money, and he calls it a win-win. 

“Something like we’re talking about in the $6 million range, we’re probably looking at a $100,000 a year to the city,” Spillers said. 

He says the “The Lodge at Mc and Elbert” will be finished by the end of next year.