Alpharetta puts City Center on hold due to economy

By RALPH ELLIS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tuesday, June 23, 2009

The economy has forced Alpharetta to put a big downtown redevelopment project on hold. The city had a partnership with Solomon Holdings to build the Alpharetta City Center, which would have included a new City Hall, 80,000 square feet of retail and office space, an underground parking garage, a town green and a 5-acre passive park.

Alpharetta Mayor Arthur Letchas said in a statement that the sour economy hurt the project. “While we do believe that Alpharetta City Center will in the future be a viable project … that viability cannot be realized as things now stand,” he said.

Jim Drinkard, the assistant city administrator, said the city staff had been negotiating with Solomon Holdings since April. During that time the economy got worse. “We could not come to a point where Solomon was comfortable, the city was comfortable and it was the right deal for everybody,” he said.

The city planned to use $24 million in bonds to finance the project, which would have been on nine acres bounded by Academy Street, Ga. 9 and Haynes Bridge Road. The city owns the land. The City Council would have had to decide by August to put the bond question on the November referendum.

Al Holbrook of Solomon Holdings said in a statement that his company would be open to working on the project in the future.

Charles Petrakopoulos, whose family owns the Alpha Soda restaurant, said he was disappointed by the news.“We were looking forward to it because we feel that center corridor has been neglected,” he said. “It needs to happen someday.”