Alpharetta Puzzle Coming Together
categories: Alpharetta Real Estate
I wrote recently of the Big Three projects for Alpharetta: City Center, Prospect Park and Encore Park. 2008 is the scheduled opening of these projects and I’m updating that previous post with the latest news.
Mostly the news is regarding Encore Park. This is the 45-acre, 12,000 seat amphitheatre that is now going to be built for sure along Westside Parkway near the fire house.
Alpharetta is a great place to live and offers plenty of jobs, great schools, and great grocery stores; however, cultural facilities have been lacking. Encore Park will fill a much needed void in the community fabric. Now residents of Alpharetta, Milton, Roswell and Johns Creek can enjoy summertimes on the lawn with a cool drink and not have to fight their way down to Chastain Park. Encore Park will become to Alpharetta what Wolftrap is to Northern Virginia.
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra will operate Encore Park and the $35M financing will be mostly done through private bond issues by the ASO’s parent, the Woodruff Arts Center. Ground breaking is set for June 1, 2007 and completion scheduled for May 2008.
The second piece of the puzzle
The second piece of the puzzle is regarding the Alpharetta City Center, which is the redevelopment of “downtown” Alpharetta and the construction of a new City Hall, park, retail and residential condominiums. This project is being funded with a “tax allocation district”.
There was a court challenge by the Fulton County Taxpayers Association regarding whether TAD funds could be diverted from the schools systems to finance non-school projects. The Fulton County School Board recently decided to participate in the TAD but to participate for only 18 years rather than 25. What the Board is agreeing to is to forego any increased tax revenue from the development for 18 years so that that increase can be used to pay the bonds needed for development. The change to 18 from 25 years will cost the project (that is, the City) about $4M that it will have to raise elsewhere to pay for the bond issue.
Tax Allocation Districts, also known as tax increment financing, theoretically make sense to finance development that would otherwise not take place: the criteria is “but for” the investment of public funds and the creation of the district, future (private) development would not take place. This “but for” test is the tricky part because, I have to agree with School Board member, Katie Reeves, it is hard to believe that downtown Alpharetta is blighted and wouldn’t ever be redeveloped, particularly if you are comparing it to other areas, say, inside the I-285 perimeter.
However, downtown Alpharetta is what it is: a place most people just drive past and to get the sort of project done that needs to get done there requires a concentrated investment, not just store by store, block by block renovation that would take years to complete and probably never gain enough momentum to be successful. Regardless of how the TAD should work in theory, it is the financing tool that will work in this case and the School Board is now on board, pardon the pun.
Demolition of the existing City Hall is still scheduled for May.
