Private Airport Eyed For New Subdivision

ATLANTA-Land in all of the 14 counties surrounding Atlanta is becoming more valuable and less available by the month, none more so than the dirt at the 15-acre, 44-year-old, privately owned Mathis Airport, 30 miles north of Downtown in south Forsyth County.

Focus Development Inc. of Buckhead, GA has a contract with owner C.J. Mathis, better known as Claudy John, to buy the land for $2.53 per sf, about 20 times more than it might have fetched only 15 years ago, area industrial real estate brokers dealing in land sales, tell GlobeSt.com. The $1.7 million offer equates to $110,000 per acre.

But a second buyer, homebuilder Joe Voyles of Berkeley Lake, GA, is also in line if Focus backs out. Focus is also buying 29 acres surrounding the tiny airport in a deal with other individual landowners at an undisclosed price, area brokers familiar with the transaction tell GlobeSt.com.