Suwanee, Chamblee and Doraville Plan Annexations

Elected officials are asking for neighborhood comments April 3 on the planned annexation. The move would bring an additional 1,000 residents into the city's boundaries and increase Suwanee's permanent population to an estimated 13,000, local marketing sources tell GlobeSt.com.

The 270 acres of unincorporated Gwinnett County sit across from Suwanee Elementary School near Smithtown Road. The city's last annexation of a commercial tract four years ago was near the 270-acre tract.

Suwanee, 30 miles northeast of Downtown Atlanta, has been attracting name developers over the past two years. Last month, Atlanta-based Seefried Industrial Properties Inc. and San Francisco-based AMB Property Group broke ground on a $21-million, 480,900-sf spec-build distribution building at Horizon Drive and Old Peachtree Road, as GlobeSt.com previously reported. The joint venture's first of three planned buildings at the site has its 200,000 sf 100% leased.

In April 2005, the city sold Atlanta developer John A. Williams' Madison Retail LLC company 2.2 acres next to Town Center Park for $1.15 million or $522,727 per acre ($12 per sf). Madison plans to construct a three-story, 31,200-sf building that will house ground-floor retail underneath offices and condominiums.

Another developer, Main Street Corners LLC, is completing a 42,000-sf, two-story building at Town Center that will house Main Street Bank, a barber shop and a retail mix, as GlobeSt.com also previously reported.

Two other area municipalities are considering adding to their size. Elected officials in the City of Chamblee, with an estimated population of 10,000 and a land mass of 2,000 acres, would like to annex two parcels totaling about 1,500 acres along Ashford Dunwoody and Chamblee Dunwoody roads, just below Interstate 285. The annexation would double Chamblee's population base, DeKalb County staffers confirm for GlobeSt.com.

In another nearby Atlanta community, Doraville officials want to extend the northern part of the town to the Gwinnett County line. That annexation would include properties near Home Depot and Winters Chapel Road.