Brian Vanderhoff's North Fulton Real Estate Blog: December 2011

Company flattered, but have no plans to bring store to the area

CUMMING, Ga. — Ever since Kroger left the Lakeland Plaza shopping center last year - a rumor was started that a Whole Foods was thinking of snatching up the prime location off Ga. 400 and exit 14.

However, Whole Foods execs say they have no such plan for a Forsyth County location.

In early December, Elleni Tzortzis, who runs Giorgio's Italian Restaurant at the same plaza, began asking the community to show the company it would do well opening a location in Cumming. As of Dec. 19, more than 1,038 people signed the petition - http://www.change.org/petitions/put-whole-foods-in-lakeland-plaza

"Definitely needed in our area," writes Christine Vallianatos, a Whole Foods shopper and Cumming-area resident. "The entire area would flourish with Whole Foods being the anchor store of that shopping center. Not to mention it would also bring in lots of people from other surrounding areas. Definitely a win-win situation."

Kroger closed its doors at Lakeland in November 2010, and used to bring in thousands of potential customers to the shopping plaza.

Keith Hawang, a manager at Town and Country Cleaners, had said a large anchor store like a Whole Foods would help get customers to find his independently-owned business.

Whole Foods, the eighth largest food and drug store in the U.S., according to Forbes, said it has no plan for a store in Forsyth County at this time.

"Store site decisions are based on a combination of factors that include the availability and cost of real estate, population density, education, income and interest in natural and organic foods," said Darrah Horgan, a spokeswoman for Whole Foods. "No one factor is most important, but the right combination is important. While it's flattering that there is interest in our brand, online petitions do not impact our real estate decisions."

New stores are announced four times annually on the company's quarterly earnings calls.

Current stores in development for the South region over the next year: Greensboro, Wilmington and Charlotte, N.C., Columbia, S.C. and Knoxville, Tenn.

Whole Foods shoppers in the Forsyth County area can take a ride to Roswell, 1180 Upper Hembree Road in Roswell or Johns Creek, 5945 State Bridge Road in Duluth to get their fix. There are eight total stores in Ga., including two Harry's Farmers Markets, and their newest store in East Cobb, opened in July.

Labels: Cumming, cumming georgia, Lakeland Plaza, whole foods

Neighboring communities happy with end-of-year construction numbers


MILTON/FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. – Two neighboring communities are finishing the year in the black when it comes to residential construction permitting.

Forsyth County and city of Milton planning and development officials say their area has seen an overall positive outlook when it comes to new home permits.

"We will permit a few more homes, more homes than last year," said Tom Brown, director of Forsyth County Department of Planning and Community Development.

Commercial permits are a bit harder and a bit more misleading, Brown said.

"You could have a commercial permit for a Walmart and a commercial permit for someone doing a dumpster enclosure," Brown said. "A residential unit is pretty comparable."

In the case of a residential construction, one may be taking about a detached home, an apartment or a townhome.

"You're talking about a new household coming online," Brown said.

Percentage-wise, it may seem like a small increase, but it's still more than the previous year.

"The good sign is that people still find this area attractive, people want to move here," Brown said. "Compared to other counties, we are doing much more activity. Regardless of people's opinions, people want to be here."


In Milton the picture is a little different. While commercial numbers for building permits dropped off significantly from 2010 to this year, residential spiked. New homes got a small bump, but the real jump in construction came from additions and extensions of current homes, including pools and garages.

"Not a lot of commercial businesses are spending money right now [in Milton]," said Wade Greene, chief building inspector with Milton. "Instead we're finding people are adding on to their current homes. They decided they can live with their home for another couple years."

Green said the numbers are a far cry from the boom of 2007, but still not as bad as 2008 or 2009.

Labels: Forysth, Forysth County, milton, Milton Georgia, New Homes

Interchange justification report for McGinnis Ferry exit moves project forward

Some of the traffic in south Forsyth County may soon be alleviated with a new south and northbound on and off ramp at McGinnis Ferry Road and Ga. 400.

The new Ga. 400 interchange would create new exits between the existing Windward Parkway exit 11 and McFarland Parkway exit 12, said John Cunard, Forsyth County engineering director. The new interchange would be created between Windward and Union Hill Road bridges.

At the Dec. 6 work session, Forsyth County Board of Commissioners approved $62,500 funding for an interchange justification report — the Georgia Department of Transportation's share is $250,000 — to go toward the project's design.

A consultant from Moreland Altobelli Associates has been chosen to complete the reports that will include: a need and purpose statement; environmental impact studies; traffic volumes; and alternative designs and cost estimates.

The interchange justification report could take about six months to complete. GDOT funding could then be available for the construction a year later.

"This is the next step in the process to get it approved as a project," Cunard said. "GDOT has already approved the feasibility study and now they've authorized the county to administer the contract for the interchange justification report."

Once this scope of work is complete and approved by GDOT and the Federal Highway Administration, then the project can move forward and the interchange can be designed.

In October, commissioners reviewed plans and approved the project framework agreement with GDOT for the new ramp project that would impact motorists in the Alpharetta and Forsyth County jurisdiction.

The North Fulton Community Improvement District has contributed $125,000 toward the feasibility study, Cunard said.

The amount of county contribution to the entire project has not been determined. The interchange project is estimated about $30 million.

"Any new interchange would help ease congestions in county roads in the area," Cunard said. "That's why we're jumping through all these hoops to get it identified as a project, so it can be designed and built."

Labels: Alpharetta, Ga 400, Ga 400 new exit

In an effort to be more "business friendly" and allow its restaurants to be more competitive, the Alpharetta City Council lowered its food to alcohol sales ratio.
The city had heretofore required food establishments selling alcohol to adhere to a requirement that food sales be 60 percent of total receipts. The idea was to ensure the city had no bars, where alcohol sales were primary.
At the Dec. 12 meeting, council relaxed the requirement to a 50-50 standard, where no more than half of retail receipts be alcohol sales. Local restaurants had complained they were having trouble meeting the "60-40 rule."
"It will be consistent with the surrounding communities, which enforce a 50-50 rule on its restaurants," said Assistant City Administrator James Drinkard.

Labels: Alpharetta, Alpharetta alcohol sales

MILTON, GA. - Milton has been named the ninth best city in the Southeast and the best overall in Georgia.

The results come from a survey compiled by The Business Journals, a Charlotte, N.C.-based collection of business publications and websites, which includes the Atlanta Business Chronicle.

The report's author, G. Scott Thomas, said he analyzed 3,764 cities throughout the country, searching for places that have "healthy economies, light traffic, moderate costs of living, impressive housing stocks and strong educational systems."

Nationally, Milton ranked 37

The other North Fulton cities ranked high on the list, each making the top ten in the state. Of Georgia cities, John Creek ranked second, Alpharetta was fourth and Roswell eighth. Mountain Park was 17.

West University Place, Tex, home of Rice University, placed first in the south.

Thomas said the raw numbers used came from the five-year version of the U.S. Census Bureau's 2009 American Community Survey. Milton's 2009 estimated population was 15,572.

Labels: milton, Milton City, New Category

The cities of Alpharetta and Milton are offering citizens an opportunity to shape the future of a portion of the Ga. 9 corridor that runs through portions of both communities.
In February, the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) awarded the Cities of Alpharetta and Milton a $100,000 Livable Centers Initiative grant for a planning study of the Ga. 9 area from Bethany Bend to Mayfield Road and the areas east of Ga. 9 to Ga. 400, which includes Deerfield Parkway.

As the majority of the subject area is within Milton, that city is serving as the lead agency for the study effort.
Currently citizens are invited to take an online survey, includes a visual study of business, residential and green space areas. Residents are asked to rank the images based on their appropriateness for the Ga. 9/Windward/Deerfield parkways area.

Additionally, there are a series of questions detailing transportation, business, housing and pedestrian access issues.
The 10-minute survey is available at http://collage.questionform.com/public/Milton-Hwy-9-LCI-Compass-Survey.
Results from this informal survey will give city planners and consultants from plan partner Urban Collage a good starting point from which to craft a citizen-based plan for business, housing and green space growth. It is the first in a series of public input opportunities planned for the project.

Labels: Alpharetta, milton, survey

City paid $3.25M, but Route may be open soon


ALPHARETTA, GA. – The last piece of Westside Parkway, the major collector that mirrors to Northpoint Parkway on the east side of Ga. 400, could be open by the end of the year, it was announced at the Monday night Alpharetta City Council meeting.
The key artery parallels Ga. 400 and Northpoint Parkway handling thousands of cars on its four-lane with median through the heart of the business district.
But its effectiveness has been stymied several years because the link between Old Milton Parkway and Windward Parkway has not opened. The road is 95 percent completed but the city could not get its hands on it because the property was hog-tied.
Only 1.25 miles lay unfinished, but the road had been caught up in the bankruptcy of Prospect Park – now called Avalon by its new owners North American Properties – until the deal announced Nov. 28.
Part of the trouble lay not with the 1 mile of road North American owned, but with the quarter-mile stretch that still belonged to developer Stan Thomas, head of Thomas Enterprises that went bust trying to get Prospect Park off the ground.
"That stretch of the road and the 10 acres that surround it belonged to him and not his company," said Alpharetta City Administrator Bob Regus. "So we had to negotiate that deal with him separately."
The city paid $3.25 million for the 10 acres, but it was not such a bad deal for the city, Regus said.
"If we had condemned it, we would have had to take the whole 10 acres anyway, and it contains some valuable infrastructure besides the road. The cost of that would have been part of a condemnation," he said.
It contains the detention pond for the entire now-Avalon project and an expensive Con/span Bridge System culvert over the pond.
Alpharetta City Attorney Sam Thomas said in effect the city was paying for all of the improvements Stan Thomas (no relation) had made before the project went belly-up.
North American Properties agreed to turn over the road to the city in return for Impact Fee credits in an amount to be determined through an agreed-upon formula for the value of the road and the right of way.
The city got some help with the sticker shock of Stan Thomas portion, though. The North Fulton Community Improvement District will kick in $789,000 of the cost and the Ga. Department of Transportation has set aside $800,000 for finishing up the "missing link" to Westside Parkway.
With the completed Westside, Alpharetta will have four main north-south arteries – Westside, Northpoint, Ga. 400 and Ga. 9 (Main Street), giving the city a grid that includes east-west routes of Windward, Old Milton Parkway, Haynes Bridge Road and Mansell Road.
The Asphalt was barely dry on Northpoint Parkway before the city and major developer-property owners on the west side of Ga. 400 began huddling to build Westside Parkway in 1996. The engineering and rights of way for the most part had been completed, making it an attractive, ready-made project for GDOT.
Still, it has taken years as the road was completed in phases with the Mansell-Haynes Bridge link completed first.

Labels: Alpharetta, westside parkway