2010 in Sandy Springs: parks, bridges, a new ceremony
The property was supposed to go to the dogs. Vines and bamboo covered the 27 acres on the edge of Bull Sluice Lake. Nobody thought much about the land in an out-of-the-way spot at the end of beat-up Morgan Falls Road. City officials figured it would be a good place for residents to exercise their pets… A group of property owners in downtown Sandy Springs formed a new group intended to develop a common vision for the city’s commercial center. Mimms Enterprises CEO Lonnie Mimms Jr., who helped pull the group together, said the organization hoped to make the area more than a speed bump on the commute from homes in Cobb County to jobs in the medical district nicknamed Pill Hill. “How do you take it back from commuter traffic?” Mimms asked. “There obviously is no easy answer, or it would have been done.” On Sept. 7, the organization, which included developers such as Kirk Demetrops and Jan Saperstein, presented its plan to the city officials. Mayor Eva Galambos hailed the presentation as “the beginning of a new world.”… Originally Published in the Sandy Springs Reporter Read More...
read moreMain Street Alliance adds input on new ‘heart’ of city
Representatives of 30 Sandy Springs commercial and retail property owners, organized as the Main Street Alliance, presented a vision for developing a downtown heart for the city to Sandy Springs City Council on Sept. 7. Mayor Eva Galambos declared it to be “the beginning of a new world.”… Along with Morganstern, who is former chair of the Sandy Springs/Perimeter Chamber, the Alliance members presenting to the mayor and council were: Alliance chairman Lonnie Mimms, whose company owns 485,243 square feet of retail space in four shopping centers on 40.65 acres in the city; Patti Pearlberg, vice president of Coro Realty Advisors, which owns two shopping centers in the designated area with a total of 160,324 square feet on 18,5 acres; Jan Saperstein, general partner of Sandy Springs Plaza shopping center, who controls 126,000 square feet of retail space on 8.72 acres in the heart of the city; and Kirk Demetrops, partner in Mid City Partners and former president of The Griffin Company, who controls 85,556 square feet of space on 5.24 acres on Roswell Road where the Bank of America building is located… Originally Published in the Sandy Springs Reporter Read More...
read moreLooking into ‘downtown’s’ future
The Sandy Springs Reporter recently invited a panel of people with an interest in the community and its future to contemplate what has happened and what might yet occur in the heart of our young city… Kirk Demetrops: I’m just going to step back and talk a little bit about the City Hall property. We can make our own plans, we can have pretty pictures, but I think we have to ask ourselves what we want it to be. Do we want it to just be a City Hall or do we want it to be a mixed-use property? I’ve heard a lot of different opinions. But we have to ask ourselves, “What should it be that will make it a catalyst?” That’s the real question. Because if we decide that it should just be a City Hall, but that it won’t be a catalyst for what we want the whole downtown to be… Originally Published in the Sandy Springs Reporter Read More...
read moreDowntown property owners form Alliance
An informal group of a dozen or more Roswell Road property owners have been meeting for about six months seeking to discover “the heart” of Sandy Springs and develop a vision for the city’s downtown or “main street.”… “Sandy Springs has the basic services, but we are looking for that next step up—some place you take your brother who comes in from out of town, the sense of community, the social interaction,” said Kirk Demetrops, principal of MidCity Real Estate Partners. “That is really the next step. It is not just retail. It is the office above it, the residential next to it…” Originally Published in the Sandy Springs Reporter Read More...
read moreShipping firm forwards city $20M gift: Its Headquarters
JAS Forwarding Worldwide has purchased a 6.34-acre site on Barfield Road in Sandy Springs from The Griffin Co. for the relocation of its North American and worldwide headquarters from College Park south of Atlanta. The site, which is part of the former Cosmopolitan North office complex, includes three buildings at 6165, 6195 and 6205 Barfield Road that will be renovated — including new exteriors, building systems and interiors — for the freight-forwarding company’s 90,000-square-foot headquarters. Griffin Construction Services Inc., which along with its parent, The Griffin Co., is based at 800 Mount Vernon Highway in Sandy Springs, will be the general contractor of the more than $20 million state-of-art JAS corporate campus project, which will include the three two-story buildings, a walking and jogging trail, and lodging for some business travelers. Construction is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of this year… Originally Published in the Sandy Springs Reporter Read More...
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