Lanier Plans 600-Acre 'Village in Miniature'

GAINESVILLE, GA-In one of the most ambitious mixed-use ventures attempted in the metro Atlanta corridor in years, developer Robert E. Lanier, his son Robby Lanier and their REL Properties Inc. company of suburban Decatur plan to develop 586,000 sf of office, 500,000 sf of retail, 724 multifamily units, 682 single-family attached townhomes and 1,158 single-family residences.

The 607-acre development site is at Mundy Mill and Meeks roads, just off Interstate 985 in this suburb in south Hall County, about 50 miles northeast of Downtown Atlanta. If all of the developer’s permits and zoning requests are approved, the master-planned Mundy Mill community could be built out in 2009, Lanier tells GlobeSt.com.

His first order of business is asking the City of Gainesville to annex the 607 acres that Lanier has contracted to buy from the pioneer Bagwell family. The developer describes Mundy Mill as “a village in miniature.” He says the project “fits in with the county’s land-use plan.” Clark Design Group of Duluth, GA designed the land-use plans for Mundy Mill.