ACWORTH, GA-This North Cobb County city of an estimated 180,000 residents today has its first 330,000-sf, open-air power center with the formal opening of the $40 million Lakeside MarketPlace, about 15 miles northwest of Downtown Atlanta.
A tax allocation district, created by Acworth elected officials and approved by Cobb County commissioners and the School Board, allowed the city to sell $6 million in bonds to prepare the former 41-acre landfill site for redevelopment, Acworth city staffers confirm for GlobeSt.com. The bonds were sold based on the estimated future value of the property, according to city sources. Plans for the brownfield redevelopment project were previously reported by GlobeSt.com on Jan. 26, 2005.
Real estate development sources familiar with the project tell GlobeSt.com several national retail developers had previously considered the site but rejected it because of the estimated costs to stabilize the polluted property. The project's developer, Cincinnati-based North American Properties, bought the site at year-end 2004 for $9.4 million or $229,268 per acre ($5.26 per sf), as GlobeSt.com previously reported.The shopping center, just north of Acworth due West Road, is anchored by a SuperTarget, Circuit City, Books-a-Million and Office Max. The site was used in past years as a sprawling flea market which had operated on the landfill. According to Acworth Mayor Tommy Allegood's office, the shopping center has created 600 new jobs and added revenue to the city's property tax base.
In an unrelated separate multifamily development in Forsyth County, Seven Oaks Co. of Atlanta and Devin Properties of Alpharetta have filed preliminary plans with the county and state to create Union Hill Township, an estimated $135-million mixed-use project across from the Fulton County line.
The proposed development would include 250,000 sf of retail and office space, 213 townhomes, 47 live and work townhome units, 490 stacked flats and an undetermined number of single-family homes. Forsyth County planners confirm for GlobeSt.com the 194-acre site is on the east side of Strickland Road at the intersection of Bethany Bend and McGinnis Ferry Roads. The land is currently zoned agricultural. The developers hope to complete the project by 2010, according to their filed documents.
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