New Owner, Fence for the Colony Apartments

The shuttered and rundown Colony of Stone Mountain apartment complex on N. Hairston Road has a new owner and a fence surrounding the property.

A representative with GFI told Patch on Wednesday that the company no longer owns The Colony but would not say to whom it sold the property, located in unincorporated Stone Mountain.

Under real estate data on DeKalb County's property appraisal site, 2006 is the most recent transaction date listed in the property's sales history.

ELUL LLC of Atlantic Beach, Florida is named as the owner on one page of a search of the parcel on the DeKalb site, Colony GFI on another.

A few workers were seen Wednesday inside the fenced area near the main Colony sign. Several men were standing around outside the fence, looking on.

"What we understand is another investor has purchased the property," said Jan Dunaway, of the community group Pride Rings in Stone Mountain (PRISM). "We can see some type of work going on."

The Colony, shut down in August 2011, had been crime-ridden. One of the last incidents was in June 2011, when one man was killed and another man and a woman were critically injured in a shooting there.

DeKalb chief of police William O'Brien has described the complex as not only an eyesore but a "crime-sore."

Even since its closing, there have been frequent fires at the Colony, route: {:controller=>"articles", :action=>"show", :id=>"firefighters-battle-blaze-at-colony-apartment-complex-reports-say"} -->. Part of the back of the dilapidated property is near