A for-sale sign recently went up on the North Milledge Avenue property where Sigma Chi had wanted to build a fraternity house over neighbors' objections, according to Cobbham and Boulevard residents. So I guess the townies don't have to worry about loud late-night parties, and no one will hassle the bros about going vegan or recycling their beer cans.

Brad Kohl, president of the UGA chapter of the fraternity's housing corporation, said he wasn't aware that the property was on the market. When the Athens-Clarke Historic Preservation Commission denied Sigma Chi's request to build the house in December, the fraternity's option to buy it lapsed. "We never had ownership of that property," Kohl said.

An Atlanta company called Milledge Avenue Development Group bought the vacant 1.5-acre property at 340 N. Milledge Ave. for $681,000 in 2001, according to government records. Who knows what might go there? It could be something even worse than a frat house.

Sigma Chi—one of several frats that UGA is pushing off South Lumpkin Street to make way for academic buildings—is now looking at other locations, Kohl said, but he wouldn't say where.

"We don't know where anything's leading," he said. "We're just trying to do our due diligence."