|
|
2008-05-29  MORE TOP STORIES | Roswell OKs 'historic' redevelopment
|
| | by Hatcher Hurd | |  |
| | 
|  |
| |  | | 
| | | (SPECIAL/TalMar Development) The streetscape along the south side of Mill Street on Roswell Historic Square will provide an architectural look that will be in keeping with the city’s Historic District. (click for larger version) | |
June 10, 2008
Roswell City Council gave the go-ahead June 9 to a $70 million mixed-use project right in the middle of the city's holy of holies - Roswell Historic Square. You can never say again that the City Council won't pull the trigger on a big decision.
A 75-room "boutique" hotel anchors the development (with 40 condos on the top two floors) on the south side of Mill Road and South Atlanta Street. Roswell Mill will also contain office and retail development with a 450-space parking garage.
The project will also have small retail kiosks for vendors. The idea is to provide some specialty shopping and also encourage more foot traffic into the area.
Mayor Jere Wood said the credit for what he called the most ambitious redevelopment project ever undertaken in the city does not go to the City Council or the Historic Preservation Commission (which is the recommending body governing development in the Historic District).
"It was the people who wanted to revive the Square who made this happen," Wood said. "This is the most significant project the city has ever approved. If it is a success, it will be a model for redevelopment in the future."
The "movement" to do something about the economic decline around the southern end of the Historic District that is clustered around the Square started over coffeeat Ann Reddick's dining room table when she and architect Lew Oliver commiserated over the creep of decay that seemed to be eating away at the once vibrant area.
"Lew and I started talking about how we had moved to [the Historic District] and now there was nowhere to go - the restaurants had closed, there weren't any shops anymore. So we decided to get a group of stakeholders together to try to do something about it," Reddick said.
Eventually, the group became the Revitalization Task Force with Reddick as chairwoman. The city supported the effort, funding a charrette (where professionals study and offer solutions to a design problem) that included city staff services. The charrette also had Oliver's services. He is an award-winning architect who specializes in classic Greek-revival and Federal architecture. His company, Whole Town Solutions Inc., designed Vickery, the Hedgewood Properties mixed-use development that has recreated a turn-of-the-century town in south Forsyth County.
With the support of the community and Oliver's expertise guiding the design, TalMar Development acquired the property and began working with the city and the Historic Preservation Commission to build a mixed-use project that would complement the Historic District but not overwhelm it.
The parking garage was considered a major amenity by the city, and all of the spaces dedicated to office buildings will become public spaces after 6 p.m. weekdays and all day Saturday and Sunday adding as many as 100 parking spaces for a revitalized Historic Square.
The community wanted the project, the Historic Preservation Commission bestowed its blessings and the City Council was all for it, but this being Roswell it was still a three-hour meeting to approve the site plan.
Most of the time was spent getting the wording right on the parking agreement. The rest of the time dealt with a new Preservation Commission objection. The latest TalMar design shows some open-air buildings fronting Atlanta Street that would look like storefronts but actually be public space for art shows and other public events.
Preservation Chairman Richard Hallberg said his board did not like the public space and would rather see actual retail stores along Atlanta Street. TalMar CEO Bradley T. Burnett said the biggest problem besides increasing the amount of retail space for the project would be the viability of such stores front a road that is really too busy.
However, that issue will be ironed out in negotiations with the Preservation Commission which must still grant the project a certificate of appropriateness. If no agreement is reached, the City Council is the final arbiter.
 View images.
| |
Reader Comments
These are our reader's opinions and thoughts.The opinions on this site are posted by our readers, and are not edited by Appen Inc.
So how are similar 'mixed use' (re)developments doing ?
June 11, 2008 | 07:16 PM
Such as the one in south Forsyth ? And other ones in suburban Atlanta ? Where is the money coming from ? (assuming that the 'investors/stakeholders' are not paying cash for everything).
J. W. Culpepper
| |
|
|
| |
|
