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Commission, Players
Like New Tennis Plan
Cornerstone Church of God's willingness to
sell the county a parcel of land adjacent to
Southeast Clarke Park for a tennis center—12
new lighted courts and 90 parking spaces,
plus amenities—is "a great example of com
munity cooperation," said ACC Commissioner
Ed Robinson last week. The church's sale of 10
acres (part of the former driving range next to
the park, which is across from Wal-Mart) puts
to rest a spirited local controversy over where
to locate the facility.
Underfunded from the first, it has had a
rocky history; the plan is downsized (voters
approved a 20-court project, which could draw
perhaps a half-dozen state and regional tennis
tournaments to ACC) and other proposed sites
(including Bishop Park) brought strong objec
tions from park users and neighbors, prompt
ing commissioners to back off. That left a
compromise plan that would displace Little
League fields at Southeast Clarke Park. Tennis
fans didn't like it, either; Walter Williams (who
originally proposed the project) called it "a
mistake of monumental proportions" with dis
tracting lights and noise from Lexington Road
and from an adjacent soccer field.
But under the new plan, the courts will be
well away from the road. The park already has
two tennis courts, and its long-range "master
plan" calls for eventually building four more
(in addition to the tennis center); the result
ing 18 courts should be enough to attract
tournaments, SPLOST project administrator
Derek Doster says.
The center is among the last of the SPLOST
projects approved by voters in 2004 to be
built. The additional land cost for the new
plan is modest ($240,000); constructing the
1100-foot driveway from Lexington Road
will actually cost more than that. The tennis
players in the "user group" advising the proj
ect "really liked the idea," too, ACC Leisure
Services Director Pam Reidy said at last week's
mayor and commission work session. Aside
from tournaments, the new courts will meet
persistent demand from tennis players during
evening hours. They could open in September
of 2012.
John Huie
Project Blue Heron
Study Expected Soon
Results could be in within a few weeks of
a.market study evaluating the viability of a
proposed plan for a "river corridor" district
between downtown and the Oconee River.
Pete Dugas, a local entrepreneur and Economic
Development Foundation board member who
spearheaded the proposal, says the county-
funded study will "vet the assumptions" made
in the proposal—like how much potential
business interest there might be in locating
there, and its effects on the tax base.
The river district proposal—also known as
"Project Blue Heron"—is modeled on the way
industrial parks have been developed in many
places: the county would own the land, leas
ing it to developers and providing incentives
like grants or low-interest construction loans
to encourage building on the site.
But instead of industry, EOF director Matt
Forshee imagines "class A" office space (the
sort preferred by corporate businesses, but
not currently available in Athens) being built
there. And instead of a campus-like suburban
location—"that's the old model," he says—
many businesses these days appreciate the
amenities of a unique downtown like Athens':
"I think the model we go after is companies
that want to be in a cool, urban-type setting,
that want to be able to walk down the street
to get coffee... I mean, people love coming to
Athens. They love coming to downtown."
At present, he says, if a technology com
pany is looking for 20,000 square feet of
office space, "we Jon't have that kind of
space existing in Athens. ' And Forshee does
get such requests from companies looking to
locate in college towns. Athens Downtown
Development Authority director Kathryn
Lookofsky says demand for additional space
downtown is "steady"—mostly for retail. But
most businesses want larger spaces than are
available downtown, she adds.
Dugas says he's talked "informally" with
acquaintances "in the entertainment industry
[and] in the technology industry" in major cit
ies, and they sounded eager to move at least
some of their employees to a cheaper, more
remote location like Athens. But no companies
have actually offered specific commitments;
the study now underway by Bleakly Advisory
Group could suggest tools (like tax allocation
districts, which funnel tax revenues back into
the same district) to make a public/private
partnership work, he says. Forshee expects the
consultant to propose something that works,
"because that's a reflection back on them."
A public/private partnership could make
"class A " office space available at lower rates
than the market will provide, he says. "We
think it's highly unlikely that a developer is
going to come in on their own and build those
kinds of spaces, on a speculative basis." They
might have to charge rents of $25 per square
foot, he says; and "that doesn't work in the
Athens market, because nobody's going to pay
that." Since such space doesn't already exist
in Athens, a county-owned project would not
be competing with the private sector, he says.
Such a plan would also give the community
(not just developers) a say in what gets built
on the land, he adds—perhaps providing jobs
rather than the student apartments that are
otherwise likely to be built. "It's clear that
there's land that's going to develop, at some
point, in that area," he says, but the river dis
trict is "potentially a 20- to 25-year project."
Street layouts and other details would be
decided later; "we've wanted to stay away
from treating this as if it were a master plan."
The entire area encompasses 25 or 30
acres, including county-owned greenspace and
"underutilized" county-owned land near the
Multimodal Transportation Center, but only
about 15 acres would actually be developed.
In order to prevent landowners from hiking
prices as a result of the plan, EOF board mem
bers obtained legal "options" to buy the land
(about 24 separate parcels) at prices negoti
ated around present values, Forshee explains.
Those options will expire in the next few
months. For a price, they could be renewed—
but while the cost of land purchases ($16.2
million) is less than the cost of infrastructure
improvements, loans, and other required costs,
that's still a lot of money for the local govern
ment to produce on short notice. (Long-range,
the plan is to finance the project by selling
municipal bonds, which offer tax advantages
to investors while allowing local governments
to raise money.)
John Huie
Republic
salon
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