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The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
Sunday, December 9, 2018 7A
LAND
■ Continued from 1A
The sale was closed on Nov. 19,
using funds from the city’s capital
reserves, according to Perry. The
health system had made its offer
on the property in August, and then
approached the city about the land,
according to records and inter
views with officials.
NGHS signed a letter of intent
with the developers who owned
the property in August, according
to records. Then, later that month,
Couch contacted Perry asking to
discuss a “potential real estate
transaction.”
The health system knew through
previous communication with the
city that the city was interested
in the property for its potential to
kickstart midtown development,
Couch told The Times Friday.
Neither the health system nor
the city had the land appraised.
Charles McKay, an appraiser
with Metro Appraisals in Gaines
ville, said there are not many lots
left downtown near the central
business district. This land’s loca
tion near the pedestrian bridge is
also a factor that makes its situation
unique, he said.
“It’s unusual in the fact that there
aren’t many properties like it left,
and that it adjoins the bridge that
gains access to the (central busi
ness district),” McKay said. “It’s all
unusual because properties like it
just don’t sell very often. ”
Downtown land that has sold
recently has gotten anywhere from
about $700,000 an acre to $2.7 mil
lion an acre, McKay said.
The city paid $1.47 million per
acre for this land. The $10 mil
lion purchase was funded using
capital reserves, and Perry said
Thursday afternoon that the city
had about $76 million in that fund.
The current fiscal year’s Capital
Improvements Program fund is at
$54 million. The program includes
money that is set aside for budgeted
projects and general capital expen
ditures, from all departments. Dol
lars are not cut off at the end of
a fiscal year but stay in the fund
until project completion. Funding
sources for the program include
transfers in from other depart
ments or funds, including the gen
eral fund and hotel/motel tax fund.
Emails obtained by The Times
through an open records request
indicate that representatives
of the health system had heard
that Northside Hospital, based
in Atlanta, could be interested in
the property at 110 Jesse Jewell
Parkway.
Couch said Friday that, like
many in the area, the health sys
tem had heard the rumor from
general gossip in the community.
Members of the Gainesville City
Council told The Times they had
also heard about possible interest
from Northside.
But those rumors turned out
to be just that — speculation that
quickly spread.
Katherine Watson, a spokes
woman for Northside, told The
Times Monday that Northside
had never expressed interest in
the property and was not actively
looking in Gainesville. Northside
acquired the Northeast Georgia
Diagnostic Clinic in Gainesville
earlier this year, that hospital’s first
presence in the city.
Before the announcement of
the agreement, Perry and Couch
drafted responses to questions they
anticipated from the public and the
media. In a draft sent on Aug. 27,
an offer on the land from North-
side is mentioned. Then, on Oct. 15,
the day before the vote, Couch said
there had never been confirmation
of any other offers on the property.
RK Whitehead, the chairman of
the NGHS Board of Trustees, said it
would not be feasible for the health
system to buy any empty property
that is available just to keep out
competition.
“We want to do what is best for
our patients and our health system
and our community,” he said.
""’"•"an.
Times file photos
Gainesville’s pedestrian bridge spans Jesse Jewell Parkway, linking downtown with midtown. The city recently
purchased the 6.8 acres at the end of the bridge in a deal officials say will ensure a positive future use for the property.
Bradford Street near the southern end of Gainesville’s midtown area.
Gainesville just banned more than 30 uses, including homeless shelters
and crisis centers, in its midtown area although existing ones are allowed
to stay.
Whitehead said the health sys
tem did not have specific plans for
how the site would be developed,
but rather saw how influential that
property’s development could be
and wanted to be at the table for
that decision.
“Here was an opportunity to
make sure that a key piece of
property in our downtown was
developed in a manner that would
be beneficial for not only North
east Georgia Health System but
the entire region and commu
nity,” Whitehead said. “If you wait
around and wait too long for some
thing, it will pass you by.”
The condition about new medi
cal uses is standard in the health
system’s land sales, Whitehead
said.
“Once you have the ability to
control it, you want to make sure
that anything that might go on that
property in the future is not detri
mental to what the health system
and the hospital wants to do,” he
said.
Whitehead said the health sys
tem is working on a master plan to
evaluate facilities, and the system
has a shortage of administrative
space and wants to keep an eye on
the real estate market.
“When there’s something avail
able that may fit in to the puzzle, it
makes sense to take a hard look at
it,” he said.
Whitehead said the health sys
tem’s new residency program,
starting next summer, also shapes
the health system’s strategic plan
ning efforts, as that program will
bring young doctors to Gainesville
who will need to live near the hos
pital and will be spending their off
time in the community, too.
“(Graduate medical education
is) a big deal. Everything
that we’re doing is looking
through that lens a little
bit,” Whitehead said.
Whitehead said efforts
like midtown development
and the upcoming Park-
side on the Square condo
miniums will change the
environment downtown,
and the health system
wanted to see the land be devel
oped with something that could
serve as a gathering place outside
business hours.
“If somebody bought it and built
an office tower there, and people
were there from 9 to 5, but it was
dark during the weekend and dark
at night, that doesn’t help lend
vibrancy to where Gainesville is
going to be going over the next 15
or 20 years,” Whitehead said.
Couch said a “live, work, play”
development could attract millen-
nials, including those in the medical
field, and could make Gainesville a
more appealing option for young
doctors deciding where to com
plete their residencies.
“Given the low unemployment
rates out there right now, it’s a
very competitive job environment,
so we are always trying to make
sure we can do anything that aids
our efforts to get the best of the
best here and that Gainesville and
Hall County is attractive for them,”
Couch said.
The city is now marketing the
property, with the hopes of selling
it to a developer who could turn the
empty land into a hotel, retail, resi
dences or office space. Like Couch,
officials said they also want to see
a mixed-use development go in on
the site.
“We want to be sure, now that we
have control of the land, that a proj
ect comes in that is going to benefit
citizens in Gainesville,” Council-
woman Ruth Bruner said. “...We
really want it to have a mix of some
housing and hopefully some mixed-
use, and not just office buildings or
just apartments. There needs to be
a mix.”
Mayor Danny Dunagan said
Tuesday that the city has
already heard from sev
eral developers who are
interested in the site. A
conference center is an
especially important need
for the city, he said.
“Our biggest vision is
for a hotel and conference
center, and that’s what
some of the developers are
looking at,” Dunagan said. “There’s
a possibility, they’re talking about
some retail on there and maybe
some residential on it, too ... hope
fully, with a conference center that
the city of Gainesville needs des
perately. We just don’t have any
where to meet with large groups.”
City Manager Bryan Lackey told
The Times in October that 2008
plans for the site were made diffi
cult by the economic recession. But
improving economic conditions
could give the property a second
chance, he said.
Developers had hoped to build a
hotel with a conference center and
two 11-story office buildings, help
ing spur development in Gaines
ville’s midtown, which has also
been a focus of the city’s in recent
years.
But those plans were never real
ized, as the economic recession
hit and a development of that size
became less feasible.
The pedestrian bridge leading
from the Roosevelt Square area to
110 Jesse Jewell Parkway earned
the nickname “bridge to nowhere,”
as it was completed before the pro
posed development ever broke
ground.
But much has changed in the
decade since then.
“There’s certainly lots of oppor
tunities, a lot going on in downtown
Gainesville,” Lackey said in Octo
ber. “The real estate market, the
economy is going really well right
now, so the Council felt the time
was right to take advantage of the
opportunity.”
About an acre of the property
previously housed Gainesville’s
police and fire headquarters. That
land was sold to City View Plaza
LLC, owned by local developer
Wendell Starke, for $2 million in
2008. Starke joined with Lee Cas
well, an Atlanta-based developer,
to form Gainesville City Center
LLC, which was the most recent
owner before the city bought the
land in November. They acquired
other properties and demolished
the city’s public safety building, a
shopping center and a bank opera
tions center.
Caswell declined to comment
about the sale. Starke, when con
tacted by The Times, repeatedly
said he had no involvement in the
property.
Councilman Sam Couvillon said
the main reason he supported the
land purchase was to give that
property a purpose and contribute
to midtown growth.
“We want somebody to come
here to town and create a bridge to
somewhere,” Couvillon said.
In 2008, when the land was sold
to developers, the city entered into
an agreement with the Gainesville
Redevelopment Authority that
required developers to fund the
design, permitting and construc
tion of the pedestrian bridge. The
city agreed to reimburse develop
ers when the project was complete,
Dunagan
or no later than Feb. 15,2017.
In February 2017, the city had
to uphold that agreement and paid
developers almost $2.5 million to
reimburse the cost of the bridge,
even though the proposed hotel
and office buildings had never
been built.
Future of midtown
The property is a focus of the
city’s plans to redevelop midtown
as a new business center and exten
sion of the city’s downtown area.
New rules passed by the Council in
November ban new businesses or
nonprofits that the city wants to dis
courage in midtown, like homeless
shelters, pawn shops, coin laundries
and industrial uses that emit smoke
or noise. Existing ones can stay.
Officials are also working to find
a developer for the former Hall
County Jail site, which they see as
another spot that could revitalize
the area.
Councilman George Wangemann
said that after the 2008 develop
ment plans never came to fruition,
city officials wanted a say in how the
land was developed to help shape
the area.
“The city is just trying to control
that land — since it is very valuable
land—and control who goes there, ”
Wangemann said.
That idea was repeated by other
councilmembers, who emphasized
the city’s desire to have a say in mid
town development and what goes on
that piece of land.
“It’s an opportunity for us to have
control over this property that we
otherwise would not be able to have
as much input as we are about to be
able to have. ...It is going to be a con
nective piece between downtown
and midtown,” Councilman Zack
Thompson said. “It is extremely
important to get a quality develop
ment there.”
Couvillon and Thompson both
said they had heard speculation of
Northside moving in, but that rumor
did not affect how they made a deci
sion about the purchase.
“If they come to town and they
find a piece of property they find
suitable for their needs, then they
would go through the process,” Cou
villon said.
Thompson also said he was more
focused on the potential of the land.
“I didn’t look at it as trying to
partner with anybody or keep free
market out of Gainesville.... What
a great opportunity for our city to
really give a shot in the arm to mid
town,” Thompson said.
Councilwoman Ruth Bruner also
said discussions among the Council
had not centered around possible
competition for the health system.
The city had been interested in
the land anyway, she said, so the
Northside rumor did not affect her
decision.
“We really want some good devel
opment to come across the bridge,
so we were trying to have a situation
where we could get the property,”
Bruner said. “...This is such a prime
location for the downtown.”
Wangemann said hearing about
possible interest from Northside
brought to mind NGHS’ status as a
fixture in the community. But ulti
mately, competition boosts local
economies, he said.
“The hospital has been here a
long time.... They’ve been good for
the city and I am trying to look out
for their interests as much as I think
is proper from a citizen’s point of
view,” Wangemann said. “I have to
remember that it’s not my govern
ment. The government belongs to
the people of this city.”
Councilwoman Barbara Brooks,
whose ward includes the property,
was not available for comment last
week.
Through negotiations, the city
offered the health system the option
to purchase another tract of land
at Jesse Jewell Parkway and West
Academy Street, the current site of
Engine 209 Park. That site is about
1.8 acres, Lackey said Tuesday.
The health system and the city
are still working to enter a contract
for that land, pending due diligence,
Couch said Friday.
Staff writer Joshua Silavent
contributed to this report.
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