At the height of the dotcom boom five years ago, Charles Brewer merged his pioneering Internet service provider MindSpring with EarthLink. Soon after, tired of bickering with his partners, he cashed out for $50 million. Now he's spotted a new growth opportunity: Glenwood Park, an innovative housing development in Atlanta.
Brewer's inspiration is Suburban Nation by Andres Duany, a treatise on "new urbanism" that promotes dense, walkable, diverse communities. He tore through it in a night and promptly conceived 28 acres of homes and storefronts centered on a park. "The conventional suburb segregates people by income," he says. "My fantasy is to live in a place where I don't have to drive and I know everybody."
The site will accommodate 350 households (60 are already occupied) by early 2007. Is Brewer's timing in real estate as good as in dotcoms? Who knows? But at least he's got experience with bubbles.
- Jacob Ward
credit Michael Brands
Charles Brewer
credit Loren Heyns
High-density housing: Three views of Glenwood Park, Charles Brewerés unconventional residential development in Atlanta.
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