Home Is Where Marietta Meets East Cobb

Marietta’s city limits thin quickly as you head east on Roswell Road, and by the time you pass under the 120 Loop there is nothing left a but piece of land shaped like an arrow head.

At the tip of the spear, the city’s eastern border is The Falls at Sope Creek, 463 apartments on 48 acres. Take another step, and you’re in East Cobb, where creek-side property can be a bit pricier.

Let’s not go there. Let’s stay at The Falls, and meet Mark Anthony Lee, who came to Cobb County with his sister in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina destroyed their home in New Orleans.

“Every time I think of Katrina, losing everything I had, to gain everything back and more is really something,” Lee said.  “Just to have life. Just to be breathing. God has a plan for me.”

Lee and his sister, Lynette, were prepared to ride out the storm in their home in New Orleans East. “Hurricanes are normal things in New Orleans,” Lee said.  “You get food and stay home.”

A friend convinced them to move to higher ground–his house in the 7th Ward, closer to the French Quarter–at the last minute. “Hadn’t been for that I wouldn’t be talking to you now,” Lee said.

After the storm, Lee found his home flooded. 

“I can’t drink all that water,” he said. “If I had stayed I would be deceased–me and my sister.”

 They left New Orleans, and after a couple of days in Baton Rouge came to Cobb, where a cousin had a condo in Vinings. 

“We went riding around looking for a place to live,” Lee remembered.  “We drove by The Falls, and it looked nice on the outside. Lots of kids.

“Now, in New Orleans, you use common sense and street sense. So we came back at night and drove around to see what it was like.  It was real quiet, nice. Everyone in their houses.”

Lee met Arvin Rabb, then working the front desk in the leasing office.

“We fell in love with the place,” Lee said.  “Arvin made us feel real comfortable. He became my personal friend. He’s a very intellectual person. I ask him for advice.”

The Lees moved in with no furniture and sleeping on air mattresses.  Lynette got a job at Emory, and Mark now works for Waste Management.

“I’m going to stay here, make this my home,” Lee says now. “It’s a beautiful setting, and you don’t worry about anyone acting up.

“Arvin and the other managers are my friends.  They know how to treat folks. They know how to make the apartments a better place.”

One good reason is that Community Manager Johara (Jo) Sanders and half of her staff of 10 live in the complex, including Rabb, now the assistant community manager.

“We’re all in the same building,” Leasing Manager Andi Olson said with a laugh. “The employee dorm is what we call it.”

They have the live, work, play thing down pat.

“It’s nice when we show people apartments that I live here and my assistant manager lives here,” Sanders said. “I tell them, after 6 o’clock it becomes our community.  We care about things that happen here.  Our children live here.  It’s not like at 6 o’clock it’s goodbye.”

The Falls at Sope Creek was built in 1984.  Wilkinson Real Estate Advisors bought the property in 2000.

Jerry Wilkinson, the company’s founder and chairman, is treasurer of the National Apartment Association, according to The Falls Web site. He has served as president of the Georgia Apartment Association and the Atlanta Apartment Association.

The company owns apartment complexes in Georgia, Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee.

Sanders moved to Georgia from South Florida in 2003 and settled in Cumming, where her husband’s brother rented them a townhome. “We wanted to leave Miami. We thought it was getting too rude. We wanted to raise a family,” Sanders said.

She had transferred here with Trammell Crow Co., but left that job and, after a few months off, answered an ad for the residents’ service manager job at The Falls.

When she first got to Georgia, Sanders remembers driving to Marietta from Cumming.  “My brother-in-law was talking about the Big Chicken. I remember driving by and seeing the old sign with the water fountain that said The Falls at Sope Creek. All you saw was the sign. It was so lush in front you couldn’t see the apartments. Then when I came here to interview I was like, that’s so weird. This is the only place that I remembered besides the Big Chicken.

“Little did I know that I would end up working here for six and a half  years.”

It took less than a year for the Cumming-to-Marietta commute to wear thin.

“I used to always leave home very early and arrive early to work because I didn’t want to get stuck,’ Sanders said. “I remember one particular incident. Something had happened on 400, and it took me three hours to get here.

“I was in the car thinking, oh, my God, I could have driven–I’m thinking about Miami–I could have driven to Orlando to see my grandparents. And I’m just trying to get to work.

“That was my moment.”

Sanders and her husband moved to town. They now have two children, ages one and three, and her commute to work (walking) is now about a minute from their three-bedroom apartment. “I’m very spoiled,” she said.

The water fountain is gone–victim of the ongoing widening of Roswell Road, but many new residents still find The Falls the same way Sanders and Lee did.  “Our biggest source is drive-by because everyone goes to the 120 Loop,” Sanders said.

Rents run from $530 to about $800, and amenities include a fitness center, two pools, three tennis courts, and a Cares Team, a couple who lives in the complex and organize  activities to build a sense of community.

Every month residents get a calendar that might include evening walking groups, free tennis lessons, pool parties, pot-luck dinners, teen movie nights, or kids’ art contests.

But, “what sets us apart from other communities is being right next to Sope Creek,” Sanders said. There is a wood walking trail that winds through the property along the water and two viewing decks over the creek.

 “It’s very peaceful,” Sanders said.  “My mom used to say it was free therapy just to sit there and read a book.”