Three Rivers Recon

Pike Road School System Hires Heavy Hitter

2012-03-21T20:16:31Z

Photo Credit: Montgomery Advertiser.com

The fledgling Pike Road, Alabama, school system took a big leap forward by hiring an executive director of the Pike Road Education Leadership Council.

And they didn’t hire just anybody.

Ed Richardson will lead the Council in their negotiations with Montgomery County, and oversee the beginning stages of setting up the town’s school system. Anyone that has spent any time in Alabama in the past 20 years should know him. Mr. Richardson has served as the President of Auburn University, and also the Superintendent of Education for the entire state of Alabama.

Learn more about this huge announcement in this Montgomery Advertiser article by Annie McCallum Bitter.

Richardson tells the Advertiser that he sees the new Pike Road school system as a “golden opportunity to form a very strong school system” and “You seldom have an opportunity to start a school system and to build it in a very qualitative way with parents who are highly interested.”

Are you highly interested in a home for sale in the Pike Road, Alabama, area? We can help.

Check our Neighborhoods Page, we have information on lots of Pike Road neighborhoods like Bon Terre, Providence, Lochshire, The Waters, Stone Park, and more.

Don’t see anything you like?

Please Contact Us on this page and we can customize your home search.

Neighborhood Spotlight: Bon Terre in Pike Road

2012-02-08T16:45:29Z

Bon Terre is a new construction neighborhood in the Town of Pike Road located less than a mile south of the intersection at Vaughn and Pike Road. Some areas of Pike Road are very rural, but Bon Terre is completely suburban. Bon Terre will be zoned for the new Pike Road School system.

When you drive through Bon Terre, it’s shocking to see how large this neighborhood is. It’s like a small city has suddenly sprung up in between pastures. From Pike Road it’s hard to tell how far back the homes go, but once you round the first bend, a sprawling swath of homes emerges. Affordable pricing and the Pike Road school zone have really been enticing buyers to stop here.

Construction originally began in Bon Terre before the 2008 recession: streets were cut and paved, and the entrance was built. Like several other Pike Road neighborhoods nearby (Providence, Gray Ridge), it sat untouched for several years and was bought by Stone Martin Builders in 2010. They have quickly built out the entire neighborhood.

When we filmed the video tour below in Feb 2012, a sign at the entrance said there was only one lot left for sale. But the homes that have already been built are big – 2,000 to 4,300 square feet, and they have some cool features like tankless water heaters, spray foam insulation, granite counter tops, and stainless appliances. Based on the square footage, the homes are very affordable, but the tradeoff is a very narrow list of options for colors, finishes, etc, and no upgrades. Everyone in Bon Terre has the same sink.

Amenities in Bon Terre include curbs and sidewalks, underground utilities, and a neighborhood pool and clubhouse. There’s also only one way in and one way out, so there’s no thru traffic.

It’s close to all east Montgomery shopping and restaurants, close to Chantilly Parkway, EastChase and the I-85 Mitylene exit.

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you’re interested in a home in Bon Terre, or any other Pike Road neighborhood, give us a call at (334) 221-5862 or contact us by clicking here. Remember – it costs you nothing as a buyer to have a Realtor work for you. The seller pays my commission.

Town of Pike Road School Update: It’s a Go!

2012-01-27T15:11:59Z

Home Buyers: It’s official – The Town of Pike Road is getting its own school system.

On October 11, 2011, Pike Road residents voted to raise property taxes to support a new, independent Pike Road school system. Plans for this school have been in the works since 2006, and the approval of a 16 mill property tax increase means construction of a K-8 facility will begin in 2014. Grades 9-12 will be phased in, one per year, thereafter.

The Town of Pike Road’s website is a great resource to find out more about the new school. Here’s the short version of what it’s all about (for the longer version, click here):

The Pike Road School will be a Professional Development School, or PDS. This means it will partner with 4 universities in this area to help future teachers learn alongside veteran teachers and university faculty. The goal is a win-win environment for students in Pike Road, for the universities, and for other students in Alabama who will benefit from the resources and research done at the school.

The school will be within Montgomery County, but independent of the Montgomery Public School System.

But this is a real estate website. Why all the talk about a new school?

If you currently live in Pike Road, in my estimation, you’ll likely see property values rise. Think of other independent school systems in Birmingham, for example, and the demand for housing in those zones. This is merely anecdotal evidence, but since the vote in October, developments that have been ghost towns since the recession are booming: Bon Terre, Providence – have you been by in the last few months? Whoa.

If you have any questions or would like to speak to a Realtor about properties in Pike Road, give us a call. We’d love to help you find your piece of Pike Road and take advantage of the new school system. Call John at (334) 221-5862, or contact him by clicking here.

Stone Park at Pike Road – New Construction Homes for Sale

2012-01-26T21:43:19Z

Stone Park is a Pike Road neighborhood located off of Highway 80 at the Waugh exit of I-85, north of Montgomery, AL. All homes in Stone Park are zoned for the upcoming Pike Road School.

If you need to jump on I-85 N quickly, like a suburban atmosphere in a rural part of Pike Road, and prefer neighborhood amenities like a pool and clubhouse, Stone Park might be a good fit.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Stone Park has new construction homes that are Craftsman in style. According the Stone Park website, standard features include 10 foot ceilings, granite counter tops, custom cabinets, and fenced yards. You’ll see exterior designs that are similar to most new-construction neighborhoods, i.e. 2 car garages on the front of homes. You’ll also see sidewalks and underground utilities.

Homes range in size from 2,015 SF – 3,200 SF, and prices begin in the low $200’s.

At this time, Stone Park is one of the closest new construction neighborhoods to the proposed Pike Road School site. The new school will be located in the back of The Waters development, which is maybe a mile or two from Stone Park down Marler Road.

If you’d like more information on homes for sale right now in Stone Park, or have any questions about Pike Road real estate, call John at (334) 221-5862, email us at threeriversrecon @ coleyre. com, or simply click here to fill out the contact form.

Gray Ridge in Pike Road – New Construction Homes for Sale Now

2012-01-26T21:40:22Z

Gray Ridge is a Pike Road neighborhood that currently has homes and lots for sale, and Gray Ridge is zoned for the upcoming Pike Road School system.

Gray Ridge is small – there’s one main street that runs through the development – so there’s no thru traffic, and it’s very convenient to I-85. Some parts of Pike Road are very rural, but Gray Ridge has a suburban feel. It backs up to the established neighborhood of Lochshire, and is also close to Bridle Brook and Woodland Creek.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Gray Ridge is just north of the Pike and Vaughn Roads intersection. Turn left from Vaughn Road onto Pike Road, pass the CVS and entrance to Lochshire, and Gray Ridge is the next neighborhood on your right. You’re close to Vaughn Road, Chantilly Parkway (Wal Mart, Home Depot), and The Shoppes at EastChase. For a Pike Road location, it’s very close to East Montgomery, and since you can hop on I-85 quickly at either the Mitylene or Waugfh exits via Highway 80, drive time into the city is pretty quick.

Gray Ridge is another neighborhood that was originally begun before the recession of 2008. One or maybe two homes were built, and then it sat silent for a few years. It’s been in the hands of a couple of developers along the way, but Gray Ridge is now being built out by Stone Martin Builders. Similar to Bon Terre and Providence (both neighborhoods also on Pike Road), there are lots for sale and floor plans to choose from. According to the ad in Montgomery Advertiser East Montgomery December 28, 2012 paper, homes in Gray Ridge have 2,000 – 4,300 SF of living space and are priced from the $170’s to the $210’s.

I’ll let you do the math.

If you’d like to know more about homes and lots for sale right now in Gray Ridge, or have questions about Pike Road real estate in general, contact us by clicking here, or call John at (334) 221-5862.

Now Selling: Providence Neighborhood in Pike Road

2012-01-30T17:26:59Z

Looking for a new construction home for sale in Pike Road that’s zoned for the new Pike Road school system? Then check out the homes and lots for sale in the neighborhood of Providence.

Video Tour of Providence Neighborhood In Pike Road, AL

Click here to view the embedded video.

Providence is located southeast of the intersection of Vaughn and Pike Roads, and I think construction of this neighborhood originally began around 2007 or so. The homes and lots were pricey, and the architectural style was going to be “French Country and European” according to the original developer’s sales material.

Then we had a recession and Providence construction came to a screeching halt.

Enter Stone Martin Builders around 2011, and the neighborhood is back on track, but with a new vision, significantly reduced prices, and more limited choices in architectural styles and floor plans.

According to a January 11, 2012 article in the Montgomery Advertiser’s East Montgomery newspaper, there are “at least 104 lots” now available in Providence, and the builders have several floor plans you can choose from. These are big homes: designs range from around 2,000 square feet to 4,300 square feet, with prices from the $219’s – $300’s.

Stone Martin has bought other partially built Pike Road developments and is quickly building them out. Bon Terre and Gray Ridge, also neighborhoods on Pike Road in close proximity to Providence, are quickly filling up with new homes, too.

Why the push to be in Pike Road? #1, in my opinion these homes are being built at significantly lower prices than anywhere else in town. Look at the square footage and prices above and do the math. #2 The Pike Road school system.

This past October, Town of Pike Road residents voted to raise property taxes in order to support a brand new Pike Road public school system, separate from the Montgomery Public School System. The new k-12 school is expected to open the first phase of its K-8 facility in 2015. All residents of Pike Road will be zoned for this new school.

To recap: new construction, large homes, low prices, new school system = get it while it’s hot.

If you have questions about Providence or any homes in Pike Road, contact us by clicking here, call us at (334) 22-15862, or email us at threeriversrecon @ coleyre . com.

Sign up for Hampstead News and Events

2010-04-23T20:23:33Z

There’s something about The Town of Hampstead development in Montgomery that feels, well . . . not at all like Montgomery.

In a good way.

Like maybe a it’s little more hip than the typical central Alabama neighborhood? (What is Hampstead? Read more here.)

I love that I get these emails every now and then from “Events@Hampstead” letting me know what’s going on there. You can get them, too, by going to the Town of Hampstead website and subscribing to their newsletter. The emails don’t come often, and usually have something pretty interesting to say.

For example – the latest one announces the opening of The Tipping Point coffee shop and bar AND the upcoming opening of Ham and High restaurant on April 30th. See what I mean? Two cool new places to gather, eat and drink in Montgomery!

My neighborhood emails usually announce the due date for HOA dues and dates of neighborhood work parties. Not nearly as exciting!

Even if you choose another River Region neighborhood to call home, Hampstead still invites us all to join in on the fun. For help with your Montgomery-area house hunt, contact us at the number above. We’re local Realtors who would love to work for you!

Nancy’s Italian Ice Is A Hit In East Montgomery, AL

2010-04-13T16:21:13Z

It’s a high of 80 degrees today and my kids want Nancy’s Italian Ice – blue Italian ice to be exact.

I do too!

If you haven’t been to this great little sweet shop in the Winn Dixie/Sturbridge shopping center on Vaughn Road, you need to go. Nancy’s passes our test for 3 reasons:

1) It really tastes good (the kids will eat all of it). The Italian ice comes in fruity flavors, plus, there’s gelato (like a dense ice cream), soft serve ice cream, and baked goods like cookies and cupcakes. Someone under 6 at our table immediately ate the icing off the cupcake we bought (imagine that) so I didn’t get a lick of icing, but the cake was more like a pound cake than a regular cake = excellent!! The baked goods are made in the store each morning.

2) It is reasonably priced. We don’t like taking out a loan to go to the ice cream shop. At Nancy’s, the kid’s “little owl” cup is $0.99. The servings are huge. You get a lot of mileage out of a trip with prices like that.

3) It’s a locally owned, family business. It’s fun to support them. And from what we gathered on our last trip, a lot of Montgomery families are also having fun supporting them! The after-school traffic was steady, and it was nice to gather and visit with friends.

Thanks, Nancy’s, for adding some more local flavor to east Montgomery!

If you’d like to find a home near great restaurants and shops like Nancy’s, give us a call. We can show you any property in the Montgomery Area MLS, and it costs buyers nothing to have a Realtor on your side!

Bermuda Grass Wins Again: One Yard Owner’s Battle in Montgomery

2010-03-29T03:16:21Z

If you are relocating to Montgomery, AL and plan on buying a home, lawn care will likely be part of that package.

The Feed Lot has products that will help you take care of it.

In this neck of the woods, Bermuda grass is the ground cover of choice. It has a fine blade, is invasive, and varieties are used for golf course and football field turf. Whether you care for it or not, it’s probably in your East Montgomery yard.

Upon moving to Montgomery, we built a house and battled weeds in our Bermuda lawn for 5 years. When properly treated, it has a slick, highly manicured look, and weeds stick out like a sore thumb. Our neighbors had effortless, immaculate lawns. We had no kids and time to kill. We fertilized, we fretted. We constantly had weeds.

The difference? They had their yards sprayed by a lawn service and we didn’t. Or, rather, we wouldn’t. There was principle involved. We didn’t need to pay someone else to keep our tiny yard tidy. Where’s the fun in that?

The clover finally did us in.

Wait – isn’t this post supposed to be about The Feed Lot? Stay with me . . .

So we called in the folks at Southern Lawns and got on their program that involved spraying fertilizer “stuff” on our lawn 3 or so times a year. It was magical. The weeds were gone.

Fast forward another 5 or so years: a new house, bigger yard, same problems. We loved our experience with Southern Lawns and highly recommend them, but once again, we’re on a mission to do it ourselves.

Someone recommended The Feed Lot as a great resource for weed control products that actually work. It’s the real-deal hardware/country store on Meriwether Road in Pike Road.

So we’ve gotten the “pre-emergent” fertilizer down that’s supposed to kill the crabgrass . . .

We’ll let you now how it goes . . . In the meantime, we’re Realtors, so give us a call if you need help finding your next yard (and home) in the Montgomery area. We’d love to do the legwork for you!

Check Out the New Wilson YMCA in East Montgomery

2010-03-11T13:33:51Z

I took a fun tour of the new Wilson YMCA in the New Park neighborhood of East Montgomery today. For those of you who have yet to see it, I’ve posted a few pics below.

Where I grew up, the YMCA wasn’t a huge program, but the YMCA in Montgomery is a big part of daily life. There are 15 locations in the River Region offering facilities for group exercise, athletic fields, water parks,weight rooms, gymnasiums – and the list goes on. A lot of youth sports (football, soccer, basketball, etc.) are played through the YMCA, and childcare (”Childwatch”) is offered at some locations.

So what’s the new Wilson facility like? The first distinguishing factor is that it is part of the new development, New Park, off of Ray Thorington Road. It is right behind the new Wilson Elementary School, and shares its gym with Wilson students during the morning hours.

Right now it has a gym, a weight room, a group exercise room (one class per day, M-F), and a Childwatch area. It sits on 16.5 acres so there is room to expand – in the lobby are the site plans for other phases of development that include a pool and water park area.

Childwatch hours at the Wilson Y are 8:30-10:30 am and 4:30-7:00 am. You can let your young children play in this area while you exercise. Y basketball teams are meeting in the gym on weeknights for practice.

One of the reasons the YMCA is such a big deal in Montgomery is the membership fee: a family membership costs $59 a month ($100 sign up fee), and members can use all 15 facilities. Members pay only 1/2 of the registration fee for sports programs, too.

For more information about a YMCA membership, go to ymcamontgomery.org.