Quick Answer
Snellville Community Church sold nearly 9 acres off Hwy 78 to Parkland Communities for $3.4 million. The site, at Civic Drive SW and Henry Clower Boulevard, is now under construction.
The project — called Bethany Park — will deliver 140 build-to-rent stacked townhomes and a 14,000-square-foot community building housing a special-needs nonprofit and a special-needs-employment bakery. Target completion: end of 2027.
Construction equipment has been working the former Snellville Community Church campus near the Hwy 78 and Hwy 124 intersection, and local homeowners and buyers want to know: what’s actually going up there, who built it, and does it matter for property values along this corridor?
The short answer is that this is one of the most significant infill development transactions in Snellville’s recent history — and it’s part of a broader wave of investment along the Hwy 78 corridor that anyone buying or selling in Snellville should understand.
How a 143-Year-Old Church Became a Development Site
Snellville Community Church, founded 143 years ago and located across from the Snellville Towne Green near the Hwy 78/124 intersection, sold approximately 8.95 acres of its campus to Atlanta-based developer Parkland Communities for $3.4 million. The deal closed in December 2025.
The Snellville City Council approved the rezoning (case RZ 24-05 / SUP 24-03 / RZ 24-06) following a revised site plan process that ran through early 2025. The church retains its other buildings and continues to hold services — this was a strategic sale of surplus and underutilized land, not a closure or relocation.
Senior Pastor Quincy Brown told WSB-TV Channel 2 the church saw the project as consistent with its core mission: “We have always seen ourselves as part of the community. Life is hard. We don’t want people to do it alone, and we want people to know that there’s a place for them here.”
The $3.4 million proceeds go back to the congregation through a legacy fund designated for the church’s long-term financial future.
What Is Bethany Park — and What’s Actually Being Built?
The project is named Bethany Park. It sits on the parcel bounded by Civic Drive SW, Pate Street, Henry Clower Boulevard, and East Main Street — directly in Snellville’s downtown city center. Construction is already underway.
Bethany Park — Project Specs
140
Build-to-rent
stacked townhomes
14,000
Sq ft commercial
building
8.95
Acres — sold
for $3.4M
Developer
Parkland Communities (Atlanta)
Target Completion
End of 2027
Location
Civic Drive SW / Pate St / Henry Clower Blvd
Rental or For Sale?
Build-to-rent (BTR)
Parkland’s signature product is a rear-entry stacked townhome — two-story units with private garages accessed from an alley or rear lane, with the front facade oriented toward a street or central green. The format gives each residence a single-family feel with lower maintenance obligations, which is why BTR operators have gravitated heavily toward it in the suburban Atlanta market over the past several years.
The City of Snellville’s rezoning approval required a revised site plan, which was submitted in February 2025 and subsequently cleared council. The plan shows the residential buildings arranged across the site with the commercial building anchoring the East Main Street frontage — preserving the street-activation character consistent with Snellville’s Towne Center district standards.
The Part of Bethany Park That Most Coverage Has Missed
The 140 townhomes get most of the attention, but Pastor Brown said the commercial building was the piece that excited him most — and it’s the piece with the most meaningful community impact.
Tenant 1 — 7,000 sq ft
A Place for Bethany
A nonprofit serving adults with special needs who have aged out of state-funded programs — a population with very limited dedicated facility options anywhere in Gwinnett County. This will be one of the only purpose-built facilities of its kind in the Snellville area.
Tenant 2 — 7,000 sq ft
Special Kneads & Treats
A satellite location of the Lawrenceville bakery that specifically employs adults with special needs. The original Lawrenceville location has built a strong local following. A Snellville outpost brings both employment and a community gathering point to the heart of downtown.
These tenants didn’t end up in the deal by accident. The church negotiated specifically for mission-aligned commercial occupants, and Parkland structured the transaction around that requirement. That’s an unusual level of seller control in a commercial real estate deal — and it reflects both the church’s leverage as the landowner and Parkland’s willingness to position Bethany Park as more than a standard BTR community.
Industry observers have noted the deal as an example of what’s being called the YIGBY movement — “Yes in God’s Backyard” — where faith communities sell underutilized land to developers to create housing supply while funding institutional needs. The Gwinnett Daily Post and the Atlanta Agent Magazine both flagged Snellville Community Church’s transaction as a model case for this structure.
Bethany Park Is One of Three Parkland Projects — The Full Snellville Picture
Parkland Communities announced Bethany Park as part of a three-project Snellville acquisition in December 2025. The other two communities are for-sale — which creates a different market dynamic than the BTR Bethany Park.
Brookwood Green
For Sale2791 Stone Mountain Hwy · 8.2 acres
64 rear-entry townhomes with 2-car garages, starting in the mid-$300,000s. Zoned for Brookwood High School — the only new construction available in that school district. Walking distance to South Gwinnett Park and Piedmont Eastside Medical Center.
Stonehaven Park
For SaleNear Mountain Marketplace · 10.8 acres
95 new townhomes starting under $300,000 — a price point that’s increasingly rare in new construction anywhere in metro Atlanta. Close to Walmart, Target, Home Depot, Yellow River Wildlife Sanctuary, and Stone Mountain Park.
Add Mountain Marketplace — Fuqua Development’s incoming lifestyle retail center on the former Gwinnett Tennis Center site — and The Grove at Towne Center’s continued buildout, and the Hwy 78 corridor now has more active, committed capital than at any point in Snellville’s recent development history.
Jim Jacobi, President of Parkland Communities, put it directly: “Snellville continues to attract families and professionals who want convenience, quality and connection. These projects allow us to deliver missing-middle homes in a high-demand area at new home price points not available in the market.”
What Does This Mean for Snellville Homeowners and Buyers?
There’s no clean, single answer — it depends on what you own, where it sits relative to the activity, and what timeline you’re thinking about. Here’s the honest breakdown:
✓ The Positive Case for Existing Owners
Institutional capital — multiple projects from one developer, plus Fuqua, plus The Grove — doesn’t concentrate in a submarket without significant demand analysis. When developers like Parkland make three bets in the same city in one acquisition cycle, they’re pricing in sustained demand. That institutional confidence is one of the clearest leading indicators of continued appreciation pressure for existing homeowners nearby.
⚖ The BTR Nuance
Build-to-rent communities can increase rental inventory density in a submarket. For single-family homeowners, 140 new professionally managed rental townhomes nearby aren’t a direct comp threat — but they do widen the rental pool, which can modestly affect how quickly comparable rentals lease up. The offset is that Parkland maintains their BTR properties at high standards, avoiding the depreciation drag that poorly managed rental density can create.
✓ The Price Point Signal for Buyers
For-sale townhomes from under $300,000 (Stonehaven Park) and from the mid-$300s (Brookwood Green) establish new floor-level entry points in Snellville. These comps don’t compress existing single-family values — but they do confirm the corridor’s price floor and make the area accessible to a wider first-time buyer pool, which supports long-term demand. More buyer competition at the entry level typically has a trickle-up effect on move-up price ranges.
⚖ The Amenity Multiplier
Research consistently shows walkable amenity concentration — dining, medical, retail, parks — creates measurable per-square-foot premiums for homes within proximity. The compounding of new dining at Towne Center, Mountain Marketplace coming online, the Library and Grove activation, and now a dedicated special-needs community hub all reinforce the area’s quality-of-life score. That score is increasingly factored into buyer decisions in the post-2020 suburban market.
The bottom line: Snellville’s Hwy 78 corridor is in a development cycle, not a plateau. If you own near this activity zone, understanding current value relative to where the market is heading is worth doing now — before the 2027 completions change the comparable data set.
Snellville Homeowners
What Is Your Home Worth Right Now?
With 299 new townhomes coming to Snellville by 2027, the comp landscape is shifting. Get a current, data-backed valuation from a team that tracks this corridor closely.
Get My Free Home Value →Frequently Asked Questions
What is being built on the Snellville Community Church property on Hwy 78?
Parkland Communities purchased 8.95 acres from the church for $3.4M and is developing Bethany Park — 140 build-to-rent stacked townhomes and a 14,000-square-foot commercial building at Civic Drive SW, Pate Street, and Henry Clower Boulevard. Construction is underway with a target completion of end-of-2027.
Are the Bethany Park townhomes for rent or for sale?
Build-to-rent (BTR). These 140 units will be professional rental homes — not for-sale inventory. Parkland’s other two Snellville projects, Brookwood Green and Stonehaven Park, are for-sale townhomes.
What is going in the commercial building at Bethany Park?
The 14,000-square-foot commercial building will be split between A Place for Bethany — a nonprofit serving adults with special needs who’ve aged out of state programs — and Special Kneads and Treats, a Lawrenceville bakery that employs adults with special needs. Both tenants were specifically negotiated into the deal by the church.
How many total new townhomes are coming to Snellville from Parkland Communities?
299 — 140 BTR townhomes at Bethany Park, 64 for-sale at Brookwood Green (mid-$300s), and 95 for-sale at Stonehaven Park (under $300K). All three projects are in active development as of 2026.
Did Snellville Community Church close because of this deal?
No. The church sold underutilized campus land while retaining its main buildings. Snellville Community Church continues to hold services from its remaining property near the Hwy 78/124 intersection. The $3.4M from the land sale goes into a congregation legacy fund.
What is the YIGBY movement?
“Yes in God’s Backyard” — a housing supply movement where faith communities sell surplus or underutilized land to developers, generating capital for the congregation’s mission while creating needed housing. Snellville Community Church’s transaction with Parkland has been cited in national real estate coverage as a model example of this structure.
More From the Davis Team
Chris Davis, REALTOR® — GA License #327023
Davis Team at Keller Williams Atlanta Partners
Chris has tracked development activity along the Atlanta-to-Athens corridor for years. His team brings direct market knowledge from Gwinnett through Walton County — including over 1,000 foreclosure transactions and thousands of valuations that give them a data-grounded perspective most agents can’t match.
