GlobeSt.com UPDATE: Cousins Nears Green Light on Newest Retail Venture

Area retail brokers tell GlobeSt.com Cousins already has won a 7-2 vote from the county's planning commission and has been reviewed and approved by three of the area's most influential development agencies--the Atlanta Regional Commission, the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority and the Gwinnett Department of Transportation.

The only concern the county commission might have are complaints from some residents near the planned development, brokers say. The residents fear the enterprise will generate increased traffic, noise and air pollution. But brokers familiar with the REIT's development track record tell GlobeSt.com the company already has resolved similar complaints at the six other Avenue projects it has built in various parts of the country.

To break ground on Avenue Webb Gin Corners, Cousins specifically needs an OK on the rezoning of 56.6 acres on opposite sides of Webb Gin House Road, just east of GA 124 (Scenic Highway). One tract is 32 acres; the other 24.6 acres. For Snellville, a city of 16,000 permanent residents, Avenue Webb Gin Corners would be a magnet for other new development there, brokers tell GlobeSt.com.

Cousins had initially proposed 315,832 sf of retail; 32,800 sf of office; and 139 townhomes. Bowing to neighborhood opposition, Cousins eliminated the residential component at Avenue Webb Gin Corners and increased the retail and office segments of the project.

Avenue Webb Gin Corners will be Cousins' fourth Avenue project in the metro area. The others are the Avenue East Cobb, 226,000 sf, estimated hard construction costs of $18 million; the Avenue Peachtree, 182,000 sf at an estimated $14.6 million; and the Avenue West Cobb, 205,000 sf at an estimated $16.4 million.

Outside of city, Cousins is completing the Avenue Viera at Viera, FL, 415,000 sf at an estimated $33.2 million; the Avenue of the Peninsula in Rolling Hills Estates, Los Angeles, 374,000 sf at an estimated $30 million; and the Avenue Carriage Crossing in the Memphis suburb of Collierville, TN, 800,000 sf at an estimated $63 million. Cousins is co-developing Avenue Carriage Crossing with Jim Wilson & Associates of Montgomery, AL.