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 moreDowntown’s traffic troubles call for circular logic
I don’t want to see Sandy Springs going around in circles about how to deal with traffic problems. However, I would like the city to seriously consider roundabouts (also known as traffic circles) and maybe even some jug handles. I will explain that just a little later. But first, an explanation of how all this came up. We recently held a panel discussion that included three commercial/retail developers (Lonnie Mimms, CEO of Mimms Enterprises; Jan Saperstein, owner of Sandy Springs Plaza; and Kirk Demetrops, principal of MidCity Real Estate Partners), Nancy Leathers, director of Community Development for Sandy Springs, and Trisha Thompson, zoning chair for the Sandy Springs Council of Neighborhoods… 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...
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