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By Caitlin Bowling
Apr 27, 2015, 2:46pm EDT Updated Apr 28, 2015, 9:42am
Louisville-based Hagan Properties Inc. is returning full force into residential development after being stalled by a lawsuit and the recession.
“We are finally ready to move forward,” said Hagan Properties principal Wendy Hagan. “It’s been so much hurry up and wait.”
When Hagan Seay Properties split in 2005, Scott Hagan, owner of the resulting Hagan Properties, said the company would expand into residential development. And it did — for a little while.
Hagan Properties has owned and operated The Paddock at Eastpoint, a 500-unit luxury apartment complex on Factory Lane near the Gene Snyder Freeway, since 2007. Rent for the apartments ranges from $725 to $1,300 a month.
But the company it hasn’t had anything in the way of new residential development until now.
“We had to wait for the economy to change,” Hagan said. “A lot of pieces of the puzzle had to click.”
The real estate company’s target demographics for its apartments include an average combined household income of $80,000. It rents to young professionals, former homeowners who are downsizing and families who are saving up to buy a new home or are waiting for one to be built, Hagan said.
The Paddock at Sawyer Park
The first luxury complex to be built, The Paddock at Sawyer Park, will be located on Westport Road, adjacent to E.P. “Tom” Sawyer Park. The $45 million project will be a 25-acre, 356-unit complex made of brick, stone and fiber cement siding, according to information provided by Hagan Properties.
BGO Architects of Texas designed both The Paddock at Sawyer Park and the existing The Paddock at Eastpoint.
The Paddock at Sawyer Park will have 22 two-story buildings with one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, many with garages. Monthly rent is expected to start at $860 for one-bedroom units and go up to $1,700 for a three-bedroom, two-bath apartment with a garage.
Similar to the Eastpoint complex, The Paddock at Sawyer Park will have a dog park and a resort-style pool with cabanas and grilling stations. The clubhouse will have a fitness center, a community kitchen, a business center with computers and wi-fi. The development also will have a dog-grooming salon, electric car charging stations and a car care facility for residents.
Construction is expected to start on The Paddock at Sawyer Park in mid-September, with apartments ready to lease In July or August 2016. Alabama-based Doster Construction is the project’s general contractor.
Once complete, Hagan Properties expects to sign leases on 20 to 22 units each month during peak leasing months, April through October.
The project had been held up in a lawsuit. A group called Vision for Integrity and the Expansion of Westport Road, or VIEW, opposed the building of the apartment complex and sued Hagan Properties and Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government.
A judge ruled in favor of Hagan Properties, and VIEW appealed. But the parties were able to reach a settlement earlier this month, allowing Hagan Properties to move forward with Paddocks at Sawyer Park.
The Paddock at Victory Knoll
For the second planned complex, Hagan Properties closed Wednesday on a 35-acre property at Blankenbaker Parkway and Ellingsworth Lane, near Southeast Christian Church, Wendy Hagan said.
Hagan said her company has proposed building a 468-unit apartment complex called The Paddock at Victory Knoll. The $57 million development will be similar to The Paddock at Sawyer Park in terms of amenities.
The property formerly was owned by Hollenbach-Oakley LLC and Faulkner Real Estate Corp., which planned to build a 398-unit apartment complex called Ellingsworth Apartments.
In 2013, when Business First reported on Ellingsworth Apartments, the project seemed to be moving forward after years of stops and starts. But they were never built.
“When we first got the property under control and started taking it through the approval process, the economy wasn’t where it was today,” said John Hollenbach, a principal with Hollenbach-Oakley LLC.
After the economy improved and demand increased for multi-family housing, “Faulkner Real Estate and we got together and decided it was better to focus more on what we’ve traditionally done,” Hollenbach said. Hollenbach-Oakley’s main focus is business parks, retail centers and office buildings.
Hollenbach added that Hagan Properties was the perfect company to take over the property.
“It is going to be what we had intend — an absolute first-rate, class A, multifamily project.”