Davis Lee Stokes’ father taught him what every farmer’s son needed to know in order to survive in the Post-Civil War South. You have to take care of the land. And if you take care of the land, “DL” learned, the land will take care of you. But the dirt farm in South Georgia where DL grew up didn’t offer up this life lesson without a fight. DL’s father provided for a household of ten people in a time when most farmers in the Deep South were as poor as he was—or worse—and the land they farmed was tired from years of abuse. Poor and tired. Perhaps these were the reasons DL decided to leave farming when he came of age and head North to earn a living. Until then, DL’s universe consisted of the family’s 200-acre farm. He was born in 1886 to James Edwin Stokes and his wife, the former Mary Margaret Fowler, during an era when 70% of the population farmed for a living in the South.

Florence started D.L. Stokes & Company in order to represent lenders in the loan business. Like his father before him, a man who made a living off of land that had little to give in return, D.L. found lenders for people in an economy that didn’t have a lot to offer.

After World War II, Stokes saw an opportunity to build houses, mainly for veterans. For a man who loved progress, there was nothing more exciting than an opportunity. He began to build “cracker box” houses; a type of house architect Charlie Moore calls a “totally solid, well-built rectangular box that fulfilled a huge need in 1950.” Later, he built apartment communities. When it comes down to it, DL’s primary objective wasn’t a lot different from his father’s. He cared for the land and for the people who lived on it. To DL, life wasn’t about the mortgage business; it was about taking care of people and land. He serviced mortgage loans. He built houses. He also built apartment communities. In so doing, he provided a leg up to the growing middle class of the new South. DL Stokes didn’t farm cotton or tobacco or corn, he farmed something different: homes.

After DL and Florence pass away, Tom Stokes Sr. and Mona take over the family business. The focus of the business becomes more centered on loan origination and servicing, real estate brokerage, and insurance sales. (Photo: Tom Sr. and Mona)

Tom and Mona sell the loan servicing and insurance sales arms of the business. The company refocuses on real estate investment and management services.

After graduating from Emory University in 1981 with a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics/Computer Science and English Literature, Tom Stokes travels to the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and other countries with the forty-four member Emory Glee Club and Women’s Chorale for a grand European Tour. He returns to Atlanta in the fall as Director for Academic Computing at The Westminster Schools. In casual conversation with his father, Tom Jr. mentions some IT solutions for the family business. Tom Sr. realizes the value and convinces his son to help.

Tom, Jim and John devise ways to provide housing for the 1996 Olympic Games held in Atlanta. This work becomes the foundation for reorganizing the company as EpiCity works with homeowners and owners of multi-family units to provide housing for Olympic tourists and employees.

EpiCity receives the Certified Residential Management Company (CRMC) designation. EpiCity was the first firm in the nation to hold both the CRMC from NARPM and the Accredited Management Organization (AMO®) designation from the Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM).

Tom Zachary, pictured, is just one of EpiCity’s longtime employees. Mr. Zachary worked on the original construction team at the Lindmont and Morosgo Apartments in 1948. Tom stayed on as a maintenance director even after the property was sold to the Lane Company in July 2005.

A 68,000 SF office loft space located at 1425 Ellsworth Industrial Drive in the Chattahoochee Industrial Area. Originally a single building developed for milling lumber, this property was creatively divided into three separate buildings in 2000 and offered modern, attractive loft/creative office space. The award-winning property boomed as the Westside blossomed. It is one of Atlanta’s finest examples of successful adaptive reuse.  In May 2018, EpiCity received a favorable offer and exited the property.

Armour Junction is a five-building collection of loft office/industrial space in Buckhead. At the heart of Atlanta’s urban affluence and renewal, Armour Junction is a place where grace and charm coalesce with commerce and technology for the pleasure and profit of all. Following in the footsteps of our highly successful Lumberyard Office Loft development, Armour Junction is shaping into a valuable ‘intown’ Atlanta asset. We are extremely proud of this Atlanta redevelopment project.

The event offered attendees a chance to learn how EpiCity and Epic Development partner with the LBC to salvage reusable building materials. EpiCity and Epic Development have been volunteers and partners with The Lifecycle Building Center for several years. The company has given the organization full access to its residential demolition sites. Lifecycle Building Center’s deconstruction crew partners with Epic to selectively remove usable building materials from each project, thereby making these items available to homeowners, builders, small business owners, and nonprofits in the community. These materials include everything from cabinets, countertops, appliances, hardwood flooring, trim molding, plumbing fixtures, lighting, doors, windows, mantles, and many other types of materials. EpiCity and Epic Development played an integral part in the 2017 Gala and fundraising effort.

The people who make up EpiCity today trust each other more than you’d expect in a business of any size. They are family to one another, whether literally or not. EpiCity is investing in Atlanta. We are building and renovating in areas like West Midtown and the Old Fourth Ward. Atlanta is an area rich with history and burgeoning with new vitality and EpiCity is right in the center of it all. To learn more about what EpiCity is doing today, please contact us. We’d love to hear from you.