Grafton got calls from as far away as Canada after news of free land went viral
It’s been a wild ride for Stan Gula.
He was the real-estate agent for Grafton Hills subdivision in November, when news went viral that the city of Grafton was essentially giving away land to people willing to build homes in the small river community.
Officials were trying to boost the population, which hadn’t fully recovered from the Great Flood of ‘93.
“That first week, I got at least 500 inquiries, and I tried to follow up on every one of them,” said Gula, of Dream Home Realty Centre in Wood River. “It was exciting. There was a lot of work involved, but I had fun doing it.”
Gula has sold 22 of the 28 city-owned lots available (up from 26 originally advertised). Each is about a third of an acre.
Under a rebate program, people pay $5,000 per lot. They get the money back if they build a home within three years. If they don’t follow through, the city buys their lot back for $4,000.
At one point, Gula had knee-replacement surgery and couldn’t drive for nine weeks, but that didn’t stop him from pitching Grafton Hills. He provided maps of the 146-lot subdivision to potential buyers so they could take self-guided tours.
“I’d say over half (of those who bought lots) came to my house,” he said. “I sat in my dining room and wrote contracts on them.”
Most serious inquiries have come from residents of Illinois and surrounding states, but a California woman bought one lot and a Canadian called with questions. Many people asked, “What’s the catch?”
Grafton Mayor Michael Morrow also received calls about the rebate program, mainly from reporters seeking radio and TV interviews.
“It has been an absolute success,” he said. “... I think people are coming out of COVID, and they’re looking to come to Grafton to enjoy the wineries and the sky lift and all the rest, but they’re also looking to move here.”
Morrow noted that pandemic restrictions led to a realization that people can live in less-populated areas and work remotely.
Five homes are now under construction on the recently purchased lots in Grafton Hills, according to Morrow, a retired colonel with U.S. Central Command and former business consultant and aviation company president.
“We have some people with children that will be going to the grade school,” he said. “There are some that are retired, and there’s also some young couples that are moving here. It’s been a real mix.”
Grafton is a tourist town at the confluence of the Mississippi and Illinois rivers. Visitors pack restaurants, bars, gift shops and ice cream parlors on summer weekends. It’s also busy in the fall, when colors burst from trees along limestone bluffs.
But the riverfront is subject to periodic flooding, and the 1993 flood kept homes and businesses underwater for seven weeks. It also caused a mass exodus. The city had 626 residents in 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s well below its 918 residents in 1990.
About five years ago, officials stepped up efforts to promote Grafton Hills. The Federal Emergency Management Agency had helped establish the bluff-top subdivision in the 1990s, encouraging people to move to higher and drier ground.
“It’s a great subdivision in a beautiful town,” Morrow said. “We have friendly people who help each other.”
