By ANNIE GOELLER, Daily Journal of Johnson County staff writer
One of the largest neighborhoods planned for Johnson County in recent years will have to wait while developers hope for an improved housing market.
Local developer Mike Duke is putting off work on The Abbey, a 2,000-home development near Bargersville, until sometime next year.
His company, Duke Homes, is planning to review the development and determine what is needed.
Whether the 1,000-acre project will be scaled back is not known, Duke said.
He cited a slow housing market and at least five other Duke developments not finished as his reasons to push back The Abbey development.
"It just doesn't make sense to put any more residential lots out there right now," he said.
The Abbey, which is proposed to include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and a golf course, is planned for land between County Road 625W and County Road 144, south of Whiteland Road and north of County Road 350N.
Duke has said he would ask Bargersville to annex the land but has not made a proposal to the town, officials said.
With the new development, town officials have expected that they would need to increase some services, such as hiring more police officers.
The delay doesn't impact those plans because the town was waiting for Duke's annexation request before making any decisions, said Mike McCarthy, Bargersville town manager.
A delay isn't a surprise considering the conditions of the housing market, McCarthy said.
Duke Homes is developing five other Center Grove area neighborhoods: Kensington Grove, Claybourne, Persimmon Woods, Whitetail Woods and Sycamore Ridge.
Duke didn't have an estimate of how many lots are available, but the company's Web site lists more than 100 lots for sale in the subdivisions.
The housing market is cyclical and will go through times where sales are slow and other points where they are above average, he said.
When the company started selling lots in Kensington Grove, a 300-home subdivision across from Center Grove High School, it was selling five lots per month.
Now, that has slowed to an average of about two lots per month, Duke said.
Developers expect and plan for slow times, he said.
"You just hold on. It'll go up and down. That's what the market does," Duke said.
Expecting the slow growth is one reason his company diversifies its developments between commercial and residential.
The company has 300 apartments that are doing well now, he said.
Duke expects to be able to continue work on The Abbey next year. He believes The Abbey will sell quickly once development begins.
As of about a year ago, Duke had about 900 names of people interested in the development, he said.
The Center Grove area, where many of the homes are custom-built, doesn't experience extreme peaks in sales, he said.
He's already seeing the market starting a comeback, through lower prices and mortgage rates, and said there are many good deals available for buyers now.
When the market picks up again, he said, his company's goal is to start pushing its developments faster than other companies and get ahead.