West Volusia Properties - Real Estate Sales located in DeLand Florida

The historic "Garden District," an ambitious downtown residential revitalization project initiated by West Volusia Properties Broker/Owner Maggi Hall, is an effort to eliminate blight and crime in a long forgotten neighborhood adjacent to downtown DeLand. Ignored for decades, deteriorating structures in the urban renewal zone are being brought back to life thanks to the efforts of more than a dozen energetic and enthusiastic hardworking dreamers. Indeed, the Garden District is rapidly becoming downtown DeLand's outdoor living room.

Downtown revitalization is a national phenomenon. Nowhere is this more in evidence than in DeLand's Town Center, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This example of a town's central business square was rejuvenated thanks to the efforts of local citizens and MainStreet DeLand. It also proves that the community cares about its cultural heritage. And undeniably protecting cultural resources and designating mixed use affects the economy in positive ways by:

---Encouraging a return to the days when one commuted to work by foot in less than ten minutes
---Offering the opportunity to revisit urban living
---Breathing life back into a neglected urban area caused by the '60s & '70s flight to the suburbs
---Generating a self-sustaining mix of residential and commercial use where people live in the area and, more
importantly, shop, eat, and conduct business downtown
---Drawing visitors to the area who spend money in town
---Increasing property values and subsequently the tax base

       Build or Tear Down

I watched them tear a building down---
   --a gang of men in a busy town.
A ho-heave and a lusty yell
   they swung a beam and a side wall fell.
I asked the foreman, "Are these men skilled
   and the kind you'd hire if you were to build?"
He laughed and said, "Why no indeed!
   Just common laborers is all I need.
They can easily wreck in a day or two
   that which took Master Builders years to do."
So I said to myself as I went on my way,
   "What part in this game of life do I play?
Am I shaping my deeds to a well-made plan,
   carefully measuring with rule and square,
   patiently doing the very best I can?
Or am I a wrecker who walks the town
   content with the labor of tearing down?"

                                            -Unknown