The Marietta Daily Journal – City funded land idle as interest compounds

MARIETTA — Mayor Steve Tumlin promises the Franklin Road redevelopment project will not suffer the same fate as a city-backed real estate investment southeast of the Loop, which has been stalled for five years.

The $68 million redevelopment bond, if approved by voters in November, would be used by the city to buy aging apartment complexes on Franklin Road, in order to tear the properties down and market the site to private developers.

In 2006, a similar redevelopment deal was set in motion. The city gave Marietta Redevelopment Corp. $2.1 million to secure a $4.2 million loan from the Bank of North Georgia to buy property along Powder Springs Street, off West Dixie Avenue and Hedges Street.

Ron Francis, chairman of the MRC and CEO of First Landmark Bank, said starting in 2007, the group spent $4 million to purchase the 8 acres of vacant lots and properties with aging homes across the street from the Hilton Marietta Hotel and Conference Center. The MRC is the redevelopment agency for the city, and as such, the City Council appoints its board of directors, which includes Councilman Grif Chalfant and Randy Weiner, chairman of the Marietta Board of Education.

The MRC was established by the City Council to act on the city’s behalf to target, assemble and plan the redevelopment of the blighted Hedges Street neighborhood, but so far there has not been any takers and the debt keeps compiling.

“The odds have been stacked against them,” Tumlin said about the MRC being a victim of the bad national economy.

via The Marietta Daily Journal – City funded land idle as interest compounds.