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	Name:	MotorMan -
	Subject:	here is theLake Martin Article
	Date:	6/3/2005 10:38:26 PM

By: Jim Plott

Dave Heinzen is no stranger to water. He grew up in Wisconsin next door to Minnesota – the land of 10,000 lakes – and for a while he made his home on Lake Lanier northeast of Atlanta. Yet, when it came time to retire, Heinzen cast his anchor on the shores of Lake Martin.

“If anybody comes here and sees what this lake is like, they’re going to want to be here. There is no place like this,” says Heinzen, who built his lake home about 10 years ago.

He has plenty of company. The 44,000-acre lake in south-central Alabama has about 22,000 residents on or adjacent to the lake and more waiting in line. “We tell people if you don’t want to sell your lake home, don’t put it on the market,” says Jimmy Huett, a Realtor at Lake Breeze Realty. “Just about anything you’ve got will sell.”

Sprawled across Coosa, Elmore and Tallapoosa counties like a huge glimmering Rorschach pattern, Lake Martin was once dubbed the South’s best kept secret.

Recently, though, it has had its cover blown by national publications including the Wall Street Journal, Fortune and Kiplingers Personal Finance magazine, all of which labeled it an ideal and affordable area for retirees and people seeking second homes. Built in the mid-1920s, the lake for years was deemed by local residents as fit only for mosquitoes and moonshiners. Within the last two decades small cabins, which started springing up after World War II, began to give way to upscale housing and gated communities. The lake’s allure in recent years has extended beyond the Montgomery-Birmingham-Atlanta triangle. Some residents, who have no plans to abandon their lake homes, say it’s not unusual to receive telephone calls from people as far away as California and Nevada seeking to buy to their property site unseen.

All that interest has provided a ladder for property values to climb. Russell Lands Inc., which is one of the major players in lake development, has seen land prices increase four or five times within a year. At The Ridge, one of Russell Land’s latest developments, a lot and house that a year ago sold for $850,000 now has a $1.2 million price tag.

Yet, that hasn’t discouraged buyers. Russell Lands, which owns 300 of the lake’s 750 miles of shoreline, recently sold $14 million in lots and houses in its Glynmere at Willow Point subdivision within two hours, says Hunter “Blue” Vardaman, Russell manager of public relations and community affairs.

“Our dilemma is not selling residential property,” says Vardaman. “It is a lack of inventory. As fast as we develop lots, they are being sold and homes are being built.”

Even newer developments away from the water are drawing buyers, Vardaman says. “People are interested in being part of the community. It doesn’t really matter if they live directly on the lake just as long as they have access to the lake,” Vardaman says.

While there is no doubt that Russell Lands can sell property as quickly as it develops it, Vardaman says the company intends to live by a hand-me-down commitment from Benjamin Russell, founder of Russell Corp., to ensure proper development.

“We want something that’s going to be in the best interest of the lake not just now, but 20 or 30 years from now,” Vardaman says. “Russell Lands feels so strongly about what’s the best way to continue development that we’re in the process of doing a national search for a long-range planner to keep the lake pristine.”

Heinzen is convinced that lake residents and companies with financial interests in the lake will ensure the lake doesn’t fall victim to its own popularity. “Many people who have moved here have seen what has happened at other lakes and I would say they are even more protective of this lake than some of the natives,” Heinzen says.

That doesn’t mean there won’t be problems. Many lake residents contend some type of regulations may eventually be necessary. The lake, which is a part of the Tallapoosa River basin, also figures prominently in the “water wars” among Alabama, Georgia and Florida over the sharing of water from rivers and tributaries that flow through the three states.

Bob Dixon says he has never regretted his decision to move to the lake three years ago.

“We had our chance of going anywhere we wanted,” Dixon says. “We wanted to come back to Lake Martin. This is absolutely the best place to come back to – the lake, the lifestyle, the community and the people.”