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Tuesday. Sept 27,19*3
The Bed and Black
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Money Matters
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SMTjFMON timuSAt 10 AM V I'M SUNDAY I A I’M
By MELISSA JORDAN
Rrt and BUcIi Hull Wrtl»r
The recent boom of con
dominium development in
Athens — including the
multi-million dollar
University Towers project
and the conversion of two
major apartment complexes
to condominiums — has
sparked the interest of in
vestors around the nation
Attracted by tax shelters,
low-rate financing and
pnme locations in a growing
college town, out-of-state
investors as well as parents
of University students are
buying condominiums here
as quickly as developers can
construct them
But the president of a
major development firm
says the market for con
dominiums in Athens is
limited, and adds that
Athens may already be
overdeveloped
“At a certain point in a
building cycle, you can
become overdeveloped,"
said Arthur Schultz,
president of Hilton Head,
S.C.-based Ben
chmark/Atlantic Co. "1
Kinko’s faces
competition from
new copy center
By FRANCINE WILSON
K.,1 and Black HUIlWrtU,
If you see a monk walking
down Broad Street in a
hooded robe and leather
sandals, don't ask him for
directions to the nearest
church
Television personality
Brother Dominic - of Xerox
Corp commercial fame —
will be in Athens today to
help promote a new business
that is entering a formerly
non-competitive field
Today's grand opening of
Bel Jean Copy/Print Center
ends the five-year reign of
Kinko's Copies as the
dominant copying business
in Athens
Although the business,
located just two blocks away
from Kinko's, officially
opened Sept 20, grand
opening ceremonies will be
today
Bel Jean owner Ammon
Belleman owns a printing
company that operates two
other stores outside of
Washington. DC
The move to Athens is part
of an expansion plan across
the country, said Bcl-Jean
General Manager Julie
Wilson
"He i Belleman i wants to
open several more over the
next few years — possibly up
to five," she said
Why does the company
think it can succeed in a
market traditionally
dominated by Kinko’s?
Wilson said Bel-Jean of
fers a large-scale copier
the Xerox 20HO that no one
else in the area has This
machine provides copies of
sheets up to St by 100 (eel for
projects such as engineering
drawings or architectural
projects
John Gaither, manager of
the initial outlay for pur
chasing a condominium is
within the range of most
students and their families,
he added
“The student's parents are
getting a great tax ad
vantage. and . the total
monthly payment amounts
to only about $60 to $80 more
than the rent payment would
have been," Barnes said.
Carole Guld, a broker with
First Charter Realty in
Raleigh, N.C., and mother of
a University graduate
student, said she made a
special trip to Athens last
week to talk with the
Southeastern represen
tatives about possibly
purchasing a condominium
here.
“I was interested for
various reasons," Guld said
"1 thought about how much
I'd paid out in rent here
while my children were in
school Also, the financing
package and tax advantages
are very appealing. With the
University of Georgia as big
as it is, the investment
potential is there."
Karnes discusses condominium sales with Tivoli
manager Donna Kell
Xytex’s first year a success
By SUSAN GAMBKKLL
Spffill lo The Red and Hlark
Business is still going strong at Athens'
only sperm bank, which celebrated its one-
year birthday this month.
The Xytex Corp , located in the College
Square building at Broad Street and College
Avenue, will continue to lend fertilization as
well as financial assistance to those
requesting the bank's services.
Donald Zeh, manager of the Athens
branch of the Augusta-based bank, predicts
business this year will top the successful
response the company had last year
Zeh, who is also the assistant laboratory
director at Xytex, said donations deposited
in the Athens bank last year accounted tor
30 percent of the company's total semen
resources The remainder of resources was
housed in the Augusta bank
"I don't know if the initial response was so
great because the service is new, or if
people just viewed the service as
outrageous," he said
"I think we'll establish credibility in the
future,” Zeh added
Xytex acts as an overall reproductive
referral service and provides the sjierm of
healthy, educated males to infertile couples
These prospective parents prefer having
children partially related to them
biologically instead of choosing adoption,
Zeh said.
Xytex sells sperm throughout the world,
and ships the donations to other countries,
he said.
Because Xytex officials prefer con
tributions from college students, they chose
Athens as an ideal location to open the
second branch of their bank.
To qualify as a donor, applicants must
undergo interviews to determine their
genetic and medical history. During their
first visit the donor must also produce a
semen sample If the sperm count is high
enough, the company professionals will
attempt to freeze it
Zeh said the primary screening factor was
freezing the semen, since not everyone’s
semen will freeze.
Donors who meet all requirements may
contribute as often as three or four times a
week Some individuals can visit the bank
every other day if their sperm count
rebounds quickly, Zeh said.
Donors arc also eligible to receive raises
of up to $5 if they are consistent in their
contributions. Zeh said
think the market for con
dominiums in Athens has
reached that point now ''
Benchmark/Atlantic, a
privately-held firm
specializing in college-
market condominium
development, holds two
properties in Athens: 72-unit
University Towers, on Broad
Street, and 90-unit Appleby
Mews, on Appleby Drive
Schultz said the firm's
success in Athens — its
second venture into the
college market, after
developing condominiums in
Clemson, S.C. — hinged on
extensive advertising, at
tractive financing and
' keeping a high profile "
Both Ben
chmark/Atlantic's Athens
concerns are sold out. and
Schultz readily discloses
that the firm has sold $76
million in condominiums
since entering the college
market nine months ago
"People look at our suc
cess and they think, 'Gee
whiz, those fellows did so
well, we should build con
dominiums too,'" Schultz
said. "Local developers
want to jump on the band
wagon. but they often have a
lot of vacancies and other
problems."
But so far, according to
several Athens leal estate
firms, the market for con
dominiums here hasn't
become glutted
Instead, variations on
Mrlkta Jordan The Rrd and Black
traditional condominiums
have sprung up, including
duplex and quadraplex
condominiums and apart
ment conversion projects
In August, Nashville.
Tenn based Southeastern
Conversion Corp purchased
two major Athens apartment
complexes for conversion to
condominiums — 124-unit
Tallassee Club Villas, off
Tallassee Road, and 200-unit
Tivoli Apartments, on
Gaines School Road.
Steve Barnes, sales
representative with
Southeastern, said the firm
has spent $400,000 on land
scaping, new pool and
clubhouse equipment and
other renovations on the two
complexes
But aside from these
improvements, Tivoli and
Tallassee condominiums
will look much the same as
did Tivoli and Tallassee
apartments, Barnes said.
"Our company Duys
apartment complexes that
are already rented, converts
the form of ownership and
then sells them as con
dominiums, primarily to
investors as tax shelters,"
Barnes said "Most of our
investors want to keep
renting their condominiums
— they don't buy them to live
in themselves."
With a required down
payment of only 1 percent,
and "creative financing"
ranging from 9 to 11 percent,
Cheryl Fleming ami Debra Vedder make copies at Kel-Jean Copy / Print
Center
Kinko's Copies on Broad
Street, said he was not
surprised to see another
copying store come to
Athens
"There’s a lot of
restaurants in Athens,”
Gaither said "There's been
a real increase in demand in
the past 15 years in the copy
business "
Gaither said Kinko's,
which earned an estimated
$1911.(XXI in 1982. had roughly
the same prices as Bcl-Jean
Gaither cited Kinko's loyal
said colleges not only
provide student business,
but also faculty and staff
overflow
Kinko's will start to offer a
graphics service in October,
Gaither said, which
customers can use to print
flyers for concerts, meetings
and other occasions
customers as one reason
why he's not worried about
the competition from Bel-
Jean
"A lot of customers have
come in and told me they'll
remain loyal to us," he said
Kinko's Copies is owned by
Kinko's Graphics Inc , a
firm that owns 20 stores in
Georgia and more than 100
stores in the United States.
College towns are prime
markets for copy businesses,
according to Gaither He
Sourer
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