The developer of a 377-unit senior living community on the Oconee Connector where it dead ends into SR Loop 10 said on Thursday he experts to have a land disturbance permit next week and to begin work on the project once that is in hand.
Paul Aase, Chief Executive Officer of Active Senior Concepts, told a gathering of about 25 future and prospective residents of what will be Celebration Village Athens that he expect construction to start after the end of this year.
“We should have residents here at Celebration Village in the summer--by this time in the summer--next year,” Aase said.
Aase was speaking at the ceremonial groundbreaking for the Celebration Village Athens, which will include a mix or types of residential units, including bungalows, independent living cottages and villas, assisted living apartments, and memory care suites.
Armand Vari of Jacoby Development Inc., a partner with Active Senior Concepts, preceded Aase at the ceremony and thanked Oconee County Commission Chair John Daniell and other county officials for their support of the project
Daniell and Commissioner Chuck Horton were in the audience.
Vari said he has worked on projects around the state and “I have never been through a tougher permitting process than I did in Oconee County.”
“There will be no shortcuts that are taken,” he said. “They were fair, and that is all a developer can ask for.”
Background Of Project
Celebration Village Athens will sit on a 62-acre site previously owned by Ross Developments LLC that is tucked in between Dowdy Road and SR Loop 10. The main entrance will be off the Oconee Connector opposite Home Depot.
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| Official Groundbreaking 7/17/2025 |
According to tax records on qPublic, Ross Developments told the property to Athens Senior Partners LLC of Atlanta on Nov. 3, 2021, for $5.8 million.
Athens Senior Partners LLC organized on April 9 of 2020 at the Atlanta address of Vari’s Jacoby Development Inc.
The Oconee County Boards of Commissioners approved a request by Ross Developments on Feb. 4, 2020, to rezone the 62-acre parcel from AG (Agricultural District) to OIP (Office Institutional Professional) for Celebration Village.
The property contained a single-family residence built in 1965, but most of the land had been used as a wholesale commercial nursery until 2014.
At its agenda-setting meeting in May of this year, the Board of Commissioners agreed to spend an estimated $1.6 million to upgrade a sewer line through the county’s commercial center on Epps Bridge Road in part to provide sewer services for Celebration Village.
Vari on Thursday blamed the delay in building Celebration Village on COVID, the subsequent economic downturn, and the “unprecedented increases in construction costs,” and he thanked the audience “for your patience and your confidence that this day would be here.”
“I don’t there could be a better time to start a project than right now,” Aase said when he came to the podium. “There’s an unprecedented demand wave that’s coming. And so we are in the right place at the right time. And I think you all are as well.”
Active Senior Concepts
Aase said Active Senior Concepts has built Celebration Villages in Suwanee in Forsyth County and in Acworth in Cobb County and “we have three others in our pipeline.”
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| Aerial Map Showing Celebration Village Location (Click To Enlarge) |
One of those is in Peachtree City in Fayette County and another is in Snellville in Gwinnett County.” The third, which Aase said is the top priority among the three, in is Oconee County.
“We are so happy to be in this community,” he said. ‘There is so much that Athens and Oconee County have to offer.”
“Our mission at ASC is we build world class communities that enhance the lives of our residents and our employees,” he said.
Aase told the audience that he expect to pick up the permit from the county allow for clearing of the land next week, but “You are not going to see trees coming down on Tuesday.”
He said he and his team will have a preconstruction meeting with the county.
“This is a 62 acre site,” he said. “We have to put silt fence and tree protective fence around the entire site. So that’s going to take a little bit of time. But here shortly you should see some trees coming down. And some real action on the site.”
At 62 acres, Celebration Village is just slightly smaller in land mass than the 70-acre Presbyterian Village Athens on U.S. 441.
Celebration Village Plans
The concept plan on the Celebration Village Athens web site shows the 96 bungalows taking up the largest part of the project site.
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| Site Plan Celebration Village Athens (Click To Enlarge) |
According to the web site, these are paired units with 2,600 square feet of living space each. The plans consist of three bedrooms, three full baths, a second floor loft, a covered patio, and a two-car garage.
Aase, in a telephone conversation on Friday (July 18), said persons living in these Bungalos must pay an entry fee, 90 percent refundable on exit. The occupants do not own the property, but the residents have a commitment for services as long as they are alive.
The plan shows 10 two-unit cottages, each 1,560 square foot in size, with two bedroom and two baths. These are rental properties, Aase said in his telephone conversation.
Closest to the main entrance off the Oconee Connector are five buildings, one offering 96 independent living villas, two offering 96 concierge living apartments, and one offering 29 memory care suites.
These four buildings surround a Celebration Club, which includes a tavern, a theater, a bar and bistro and a restaurant.
An existing lake on the property is surrounded by greenspace, A pool, putting green, and pickleball courts also are shown in the plans.
Aase said on Friday that construction on the second phase of the project, which will include all of the cottages, all of the apartments, and the Celebration Club, is expected to start in 2026.
Video
The video below is of the groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday.
Armand began the comments, and was followed by Aase.
The ceremonial groundbreaking ended the event.
1 comment:
Why is the county using tax payer funds to extend sewer service for the development? The developer should be paying for it. Theres no excuse for tax payers to fund private development.
Brian Shelnutt
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