Welcome back!

The Arthur Bacon Golf Tournament will be held this Saturday & Sunday, May 2nd and 3rd, at Fox Creek Golf Course. This annual championship with the Mayor is a great way to mix business and fun. For information and reservations, contact Parks and Recreations at 770-431-2842.

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Technorati Tags: Smyrna Events, Arthur Bacon Golf Tournament, Fox Creek Golf Course

Belmont Hills

Time for the update on Belmont Hills, which is a follow-up to our posts on the Smyrna Town Hall Meeting and Smyrna Economic Development, as well as the Jonquil Village update.

As covered in our last post on Belmont Hills, the Smyrna City Council approved a rezoning for the property in January 2009, which was the final major step in the public approval process.

Halpern Enterprises is the owner and developer of Belmont Hills. The project will not use tax allocation district bonds, rather the City of Smyrna has agreed to reimburse Halpern Enterprises after the project is complete based on the increase in incremental tax revenue in the Smyrna tax allocation district, excluding Jonquil Village.

What this means is that Halpern Enterprises is taking on the upfront risk from the project, rather than the city going through the lengthy and rather confrontational process of tradtional tax allocation district financing.

Belmont Hills is situated on 48 acres at the corner of Atlanta Road and Windy Hill. In all the project is expected to include 130,000 square feet of office and retail space, 164 senior and 274 luxury rentals, 338 townhomes and flats, as well as 8 single family homes.

As you can see from the site plan above, there are also plans for an additional road that will go through Belmont Hills and connect Atlanta Road to Ward Road on the northside of  Campbell High School. The right-of-way for the road behind Belmont Hills will come from the demolition of four of the buildings in the Highlands Apartments, which the Smyrna Housing Authority purchased in 2008.

The current property value of Belmont Hills is $15 million with projected property value at $250 million once completed.

Belmont Hills will be built in phases, with Phase One to include commercial development at the intersection of Windy Hill and Atlanta Road, along with the senior and luxury rental buildings facing Atlanta Road.

According to the developer, demolition of all existing buildings is expected to begin sometime in the second half of 2009. Because of the scale of this large project, the demolition process itself will take approximately six to nine months. Demolition includes tearing down existing buildings, as well as removing infrastructure from the ground.

Because of this project’s complexity, construction of vertical buildings is not likely to begin until 2010.

Next up on the update list will be the Four Corners and the old Rich’s/Cobb Center.

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In the mood for locally grown organic food? Then come to Smyrna’s first Fresh Farmer’s Market, set to debut Saturday, May 23, in the First Baptist Church parking lot adjacent to the Market Village. Provided enough vendors sign up, the market will be held every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. through September.

The city hopes to attract vendors of locally grown organic produce. “We have not had a well-established source for locally grown food here in Smyrna, particularly organic food,” says Ann Kirk, director of Keep Smyrna Beautiful. “It saves energy and resources to support local growers, it is great for the local economy, and the food just tastes better!”

She adds that interest in a local market has been growing for some time. The logistics of making it work seemed to come together in time for the spring/summer 2009 planting/harvesting season.

“We have had to do our research and have the blessing of the elected officials and then secure a location,” Kirk says. “We felt that because of its large, level area adjacent to the Market Village that the First Baptist Church parking lot was our first choice for the location for the market. We also did not want to compete with our existing retail and restaurant establishments, but structure the Fresh market to help add another draw to the Market Village experience.  Fortunately, the City and the Church leadership seem to have also embraced the concept with excitement. We are in a unique position to offer great marketing support to our vendors through our city website and publications. We think it will be a real win-win for everyone.”

So, if you have more cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, blueberries or other homegrown produce or dry goods than you know what to do with, consider becoming a vendor at the market. The city is currently accepting applications for the season, with several already lined up. There is no cost, but space is limited and vendors are required to provide their own tents, tables and chairs. Contact Ann Kirk at akirk@ci.smyrna.ga.us or 770-431-2863 to sign up.

Catch the Spirit is a benefit for the New Spirit 4 Aussie Rescue.

The event will be fun for the whole family and will be held on Saturday, May 9th from 11:00 to 4:00.

They will have food, bouncy castle, face painting, kids’ games, great raffle prizes and dogs!

New Spirit dogs will be in attendence!

Their goal is not only to introduce families to the lovable dogs, but to raise money to assist in the constant care and adoption as the dogs enter and leave their program.

The event will be held Keller Williams Realty Cityside, located at 3350 Atlanta Road, Smyrna, GA 30080. Keller Williams will also be holding a free professional home buyer seminar during the event for those interested.

As a follow-up to our posts on the Smyrna Town Hall Meeting and Smyrna Economic Development, I did promise to give you an update from the meeting on Jonquil Village. It’s been quite awhile since we’ve provided you with an update.

Jonquil Village is owned and developed by Century Retail. They have invested $17 million of their own money into the project to date. Unfortunately, the project has become a victim of the economy.

Until the commercial lending environment changes, the project is expected to be  at a stand-still. No TAD (Tax Allocation District) funds have been spent on the project according to Andrea Hall, Smyrna’s Economic Development Coordinator.

The good news is that Publix is still committed to the project. The original shopping center has been demolished, the site is graded and much of the underground infrastructure for the parking deck is completed. The 14-acre, $181 million mixed-use project is slated to include 30,000 square feet of office space, 160,000 square feet of retail along with 300 condominiums and 1,300 deck and surface parking spots.

So we’ll continue to wait and see what happens, but commercial lending right now is very difficult to obtain.

Next up is an update on Belmont Hills, which is actually more promising. Stay tuned…