Brookmont’s Unspoken Truth - Part 2
Last week’s post about Brookmont concentrated more on the backstory leading up to 2003. Today I would like to extend some of that material to catch up to current times. We all know by now that J.D. Brooks took ownership of lands formerly acquired by the Fowler Family. Mr. Brooks would later sell that land off to home builders.
When the transfer of ownership went from Brooks to the home builder, many problems arose that were not being handled properly. Some of these incidents were mentioned in parts 1 and 2 of the Kirk’s story. No one affliated with Brookmont wants bad press and the public to know about mishaps, but it is a matter of public record.
For one, any corporation does not seek to delve into the pursuit of negative press. This ideal is well-known in Douglas County, from politics to the newspapers. Talking badly about the community is just plain wrong, but why? Simple – Douglas County and developers are working together to "sell" the county to people looking for a place to live in Metro Atlanta and make shop for more businesses. If they can not make the "sell" then there is no "profit".
Brookmont's intention is to provide over a 1,000 new homes in an urban setting that is surrounded by plentiful wildlife. All the positive aspects of the development can be found at their site, including some press releases. Currently only a small percentage of those 1,000 homes are available.
After J.D. Brooks acquired the land for Brookmont did the selling off process began. Brookmont was an absolute goldmine for home builders – centrally located in the Chapel Hill community next to upscale Chapel Hill subdivision and golf course. Many local home builders committed themselves to Brookmont by purchasing lots.
The big buyers were Patrick Malloy Communities and Ryland Homes, taking up the eastern half of Brookmont. Homeland Communities, which is owned by Brooks, also have lots for townhouses. Remaining lots went to Brookmont Estates which is not a home builder, but a section within Brookmont. The estates section would be divided up between eight custom home builders that would construct houses at a selling price of $500,000+.
After the lots were sold off, Brookmont was sectionalized into Pods (their word for parcels) and categorized by letter. As of now there are Pods A – G that makes up the subdivision. When home builders purchased lots they essentially purchased a Pod. The defining area of each Pod is still unclear.
While I was at the Brookmont sales center asking questions, not one representative from the Phoenix Corporation could give a valid answer about the structure of the Pods. One representative stated that the color coded site plan referred to the Pods, but this claim is untrue. There are a total of seven known pods, but the site plan refers to six. Even representatives at Patrick Malloy’s sales center stated that Pods were not represented on the site plan.
Once the Pods were owned by the home builders, they were free to do whatever so as long they followed the site plan and instructions by J.D. Brooks. We know from the Kirk’s that this is also false. During my conversation with the Kirk’s, the family displayed documentation revealing that Patrick Malloy Communities willingly disregarded site plans.
It seems that J.D. Brooks put some pressure on Patrick Malloy and Falling Water’s in November 2004 to deal with problems regarding a detention pond that had not been built. Both companies split the cost of the detention pond, however the pond was never constructed on time and still poses problems. As pressure from Brooks wore off, infractions kept mounting from the WSA and the State.
The home builder chose to divert from the site plan multiple times and did not adhere to requirements set by the WSA. Even today PMC still has infractions in place. What is even more alarming is that none of the sales representatives at Brookmont knew of the stop work orders being enforced by the WSA. At least eight known stop work orders have been issued while thousands of dollars in fines have been collected by local and state agencies.
The sales representatives then instructed me to call their offices to further ask questions regarding the Brookmont development. I placed calls to the Phoenix Corporation of Georgia, Falling Water, Inc. and Patrick Malloy Communities. All three companies have yet to return my calls.
Next post will have more information about the misguided public site plan, environmental damage and the bogus certification of the Backyard Wildlife Habitat Program by the National Wildlife Federation.
Buyer beware if you’re purchasing in a Phoenix Corporation/Falling Water development! Brooks has a long history of ripping of the homeowners and lining his own pockets and the pockets of relatives. He hires a family company to do landscaping maintenance, and allows exhorbitant prices to be charged for these substandard services–and then dissolves the landscaping company just before turning the development over to the HOA. He advertises and promises various amenities, but doesn’t deliver. Ask the homeowners about their experiences before you buy in one of his developments! He leaves ponds in unacceptable condition, and then leaves the dredging expenses to the homeowners, though his company caused the problems. He is a very shady business person!
September 15th, 2006 at 1:25 am