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Armstrong & Dobbs
Efforts Lacked Local
Coordination from Start
When the Athens-Ctarke County Commission
voted last February to allocate ,515,000 toward
an economic study for a proposed river district,
they had no idea one of the project's key prop
erties was being sold out from under them.
But that may not have been the case for
Mayor Nancy Denson. Denson now says she
knew the Armstrong & Dobbs property was
the subject of negotiations with a developer
‘probably a year ago/ when she was invited
to meet with representatives from Selig
Enterprises, which now has the property under
contract and plans to build a 200,000-square-
foot mixed-use complex that would be
anchored by a Walmart supercenter.
*1 was invited to meet with them to
see some new plans/ Denson says. 'And at
the time, they told me to keep the plans
confidential/
Denson says she didn't share the infor
mation about the Armstrong & Dobbs prop
erty prior to the Feb. 1 vote that allocated
$15,000 to the Athens-Garke County Economic
Development Foundation for the economic
feasibility study because she wasn't aware of
what the study would include, and because it
was still early in her tenure as mayor.
"It was a bigger and broader question and
I didn't know how it would affect the river
district/ she says.
After the February vote, the EOF contracted
with the Sandy Springs-based Bleakly Advisory
Group to undertake the feasibility study. But
Ken Bleakly, president of the real estate advis
ing firm, says there was no direction from
either the EDf or the ACC government for the
firm to avoid the Armstrong & Dobbs property
in its calculations.
In fact, says Bleakly, the property made
a good starting point because it still looked
like it was for sale. ‘We picked the Armstrong
site because of the location and [because] it
was on the market," says Bleakly, adding that
the river district plan didn't need the property
to be successful. Rather, ‘phase one‘ of a
river district project could start anywhere in a
swath of land between Foundry Street and the
Oconee River. "You want to concentrate the
early phase in one area... Our whole point was
you need to concentrate the development. So
we said, 'let's go with [Armstrong & Dobbs]/
In fact, plans to develop the Armstrong &
Dobbs property were underway even before
the EDF unveiled its ‘Project Blue Heron/ the
conceptual plan to attract high-tech employ
ers to the river area, in late 2010. Realtors
sent out informational packets about the
property to potential buyers in late 2009—
one year after the home building supply com
pany dosed—with the University of Georgia s
Real Estate Foundation among several to bid
on it And while the Foundation's bid wasn't
accepted, its president, Eric Orbock, kept tabs
on the property's status as late as March of
2011, when he reported to Selig Enterprises
Vice President Do Ann Chitty—his predecessor
as head of the Real Estate Foundation—that
the property would soon be under contract
"We were talking about some other stuff
and the conversation turned to Armstrong &
Dobbs/ Orbock wrote in a Mar. 16, 2011 email
to Chitty. ‘[Realtor Jamie Boswell] thinks they
will have the property under contract in 7-10
days. He didn't identify the buyer/ Orbock
now denies that he knew at the time that the
buyer was Selig, and wouldn't comment fur
ther on the purpose of the email.
Chitty moved to Selig in 2005 after leading
the Foundation through several large construc
tion projects, including the construction of
the East Campus residence and dining halls.
Orbock caifte to the Real Estate Foundation in
2002, then succeeded Chitty as interim presi
dent before being named president. The Mar.
16 email was one of several succinct messages
sent between Orbock and his former boss
between the spring and fall of 2011, as Chitty
made several trips to Athens.
Matt Forshee, former president of the
Economic Development Foundation, says the
A&Q property was originally part of the area
the EDF considered for the river district plan.
But an initial offer to option the property for
purchase was rejected, he says.
‘Because it was for sate, it was a major
piece of what we were looking at/ says
Forshee, who left the EDF last November. 'Our
goal overall was to look at ways to create
jobs... but when we moved into looking at
options, we looked into optioning Armstrong
& Dobbs—but it was never accepted/
At first he says, the property owners said
they wanted to look at other options on the
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table. "They spent a few more months looking
at options, and that's when the offer came in
from [Selig]/ ,
And even when the EDF learned of the
plans for the property, Forshee says it was
monlhs before the details came out. "We were
never privy to what was going on—the agent
didn't release anything to us/ he recalls. "He
said it was a mixed-use project/
Bleakly says the Armstrong & Dobbs prop
erty's potential lies not only in its suitability
for mixed-use development but also its prox
imity to UGA. The Blue Heron plan envisioned
a mixture of entertainment, museum, office
and retail spaces, targeting employers who
could take advantage of being across the
street from the university.
"That whole area has tremendous poten
tial/ he maintains, noting that in many col
lege towns, a ‘research park" is built miles
away from the school. "This was the oppor
tunity to have something right adjacent to a
university area, and we think this was a really
unique aspect of the area... The trend is try
ing to replicate what we have."
Boswell, the Realtor brokering the
Armstrong & Dobbs sale, confirms the
property has been under contract since last
spring—although the title has not changed
hands, according to county records. Boswell
would not confirm, citing client confidential
ity, whether the sale contract is contingent
upon county approval of Selig's proposed
development.
Forshee, who is now president and CEO of
the Fayette County Development Authority,
says downtown Athens has a lot of potential,
with the greatest benefits coming from tax
revenues for industrial and office uses, rather
than retail and residences. Although, he
notes, retail does produce sales tax revenue.
But, much of downtown's potential can
only be realized by working together, accord
ing to Forshee. "Athens is a town that needs
a coalition/ he says, citing various economic
and social foundations and groups that all
have similar missions—whether they realize
it or not. "I think [many] would agree that
we have a lot of viewpoints in Athens—but
everyone can agree that creating jobs is a pri
ority. It makes it harder to do when you're not
on the same page/
Kristen Morales
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