Lake full, people optimistic around Lanier

By Mark Davis

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Earlier this week, Dean Benamy had two gleaming reminders of life at Lake Lanier.

Low-slung, brilliant blue, each highlighted with a red stripe — twin Chris-Craft cruisers, 28 feet of power and prestige, waited for buyers at the Houseboat Store. For sale, cheap, they were shiny signs of a lingering recession gripping the recreation industry as tightly as other segments of the U.S. economy. Last year, they would have sold for $150,000. Benamy would settle for 100 grand.

Then along came a guy from Newport Beach, Calif. Yes, he was interested in a boat. Something new, something blue. The boat dealership’s owner, Benamy slid one of the 28-footers into the high, full waters of Lake Lanier. A big-block Mercruiser churned. The boat turned, white water frothing at the stern.

And Benamy, who’d been as blue as his boats, felt something.

Perhaps it was exhilaration. Lake Sidney Lanier is at full pool, a glorious 1,071-plus feet above sea level. A red sign flashed the numbers at the dam where the lake ends and, on the other side of its concrete-and-steel gate, the Chattahoochee River resumes its southerly tumble. Lanier is like a big tub, filled nearly to the brim, inviting boats and bathers.

Forget the lawsuits and the water wars. Forget, for a moment, the economy. The lake, say merchants and residents, has never looked better. With rising waters, spirits cannot help but lift, too.

Boat dealers say they’re still standing after a one-two punch — a shrinking lake and a crummy economy. Real-estate agents, never a pessimistic bunch, say they’ve recently noticed an increase in interest in lakefront properties as people search for deals.

Also, earlier this week nearly 300 people participated in a lottery to get one of 174 permits to build docks on their lakefront property — a quiet show of confidence that prospects at the lake will get better.

Rising lake and sales

A wet spring, soggy summer and rainy fall have accomplished in less than a year what some meteorological experts considered nearly impossible: They raised the lake almost 20 feet. Docks are floating again, and concrete boat ramps actually reach into the water.

Yet the economy hasn’t risen as quickly.

During the last year, more than 4,000 people lost jobs in the greater Gainesville area, which includes much of Lake Lanier. State Department of Labor figures show that 78,100 people were working in non-agricultural jobs in September 2008. Twelve months later, that number stood at 74,000.

The greatest drop — 2,700 jobs — occurred in the service industry. That category includes people who make their livelihoods in restaurants, marinas and other businesses catering to the recreation trade.

Home sales are rebounding, but they don’t mirror the volume and prices real estate commanded two years ago.

Rising lake levels may change that, said Frank Norton Jr., head of the Norton Agency. His father, Frank Sr., sold lakefront lots at Lanier as the lake rose, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, for $200 to $500. Frank Jr., 53, closed on his first property in his 20s.

The full lake has piqued potential buyers’ interest again, said Norton, who tracks real estate sales across North Georgia.

“Rising lake, rising sales,” said Norton. “And rising interest, too.”

‘How sweet it is!’

Still, prices have not risen as quickly as Lanier’s waters. In 2007, an average lakefront home with a dock commanded $605,000, said Norton. The average now is $495,000.

Lake levels do have an impact on sales, said agent Peggy Madera, who’s been selling lake-area property for 14 years.

“With the lake down, it hurt the real estate [industry] really bad,” she said. “If you don’t live up here, you don’t realize the lake will come back.”

A full lake “makes driving to work easier,” agreed Alex Laidlaw, vice president of WesTrec Marinas Inc., which operates Holiday and Sunrise Cove marinas at Lanier, as well as Allatoona Landing at Lake Allatoona. He’s also the outgoing vice president of the Marine Trade Association of Metro Atlanta, which represents more than 100 businesses whose focus is on lakes Lanier and Allatoona.

The shrinking lakes had a “significant impact” on boat dealers and marinas, said Laidlaw. He estimates that Holiday, with about 1,200 boat slips, is 85 percent full; in previous years, its occupancy had been more than 90 percent.

Now, he said, boat sales are slow, but you cannot lay all the blame on the economy. Cooler weather is here, “football, too,” he said. “A lot is going on.”

A full lake is a beautiful sight, said retiree Val Perry. He and his wife, Sharon, bought their lakefront home 25 years ago on a tract not far from Young Deer Creek.

“I can see nothing but water” from the back yard, said Perry, 69. “How sweet it is!”

A lot of people share Perry’s enthusiasm, said Kit Dunlap, president and CEO of the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce.

“Everybody,” she said, “is thrilled to death.”

Closing the deal

A lot of folks are worried, too. A federal judge’s recent ruling that metro Atlanta cannot use the lake as a source for drinking water — the region has three years to comply with the order — has long-term ramifications for everyone in the area.

Lake-area residents and merchants want the lake to remain at its current level, or higher, if possible. The 1071 Coalition, which derives its name from Lanier’s full-pool level, earlier this year hired a research firm to assess the lake’s economic impact on the region. Coalition members would like the lake level raised to 1,073 feet or higher.

That would literally require an act of Congress, said a spokesperson for the Army Corps of Engineers, which owns the 39,000-acre lake. The corps has said it is skeptical about the proposal: Raising the lake would affect docks, boat ramps and other facilities — perhaps the dam itself.

The dam. It slid past Benamy as the cobalt Chris-Craft cut the water. The guy from California liked what he saw. The lake, he said, was stunning.

Benamy felt the wind in his face, the surge in his soul.

The guy from California bought the boat.