UPDATE: Decatur Mayor Jim Baskett tells us he wants to hear what CEO May has to say in the State of the County Address before responding.
The AJC reports this morning that DeKalb CEO Lee May will propose Thursday in his State of the County Address that the County should build a new government center along Memorial Drive.
The AJC report says that a specific location along Memorial has not been disclosed, but points out that the County owns a lot of land around the Kensington MARTA Station.
Regardless of the location along Memorial, county offices leaving Decatur would be at least a temporary hit on Decatur’s downtown economy. According to Decatur’s website, the County is the city’s largest employer, employing 1,200 at last count. At the same time, if the vacated land was converted to commercial property, it could help Decatur increase its low % of commercial land inside the city limits without annexation.
We’ve reached out to the City and will update this post if we receive any reaction or reply.
Photo courtesy of Google Streetview
Really?? Where are they/we going to get the money? Doesn’t DeKalb have enough problems getting its act together with regard to the school system without trying to spend money that’s not in the coffers for a new county center that really isn’t needed? Methinks I smell political chicanery.
Would this involve the courthouse?
I believe the courthouse has to be in the county seat.
This proposal has not been well considered.
The court house and judicial tower will remain. The parking deck serving them needs to be rebuilt. The Clark Harrison building on Ponce is a perfectly good office building. It can’t be easily converted to residential and the market for offices in Decatur hasn’t been very good. The Maloof building that takes up a small block might contain 1.5 acres of land and could be redeveloped. The Calloway building and its parking are already under contract to Decatur. So this might net the County $2-3 million for Maloof and more if you can find a buyer for Clark Harrison. That’s not a break even situation.
More importantly, government offices are rarely sufficient to move the needle in market. It’s not likely to have much of an impact on private developers. Kensington station had an LCI study. Marta has been seeking bids for transit oriented development, and gotten no where.
DeKalb needs to build a cooperative relationship with its cities, not compete with them.
Apparently, designation of the county seat can be changed. From the GA Almanac:
For instance, until 1871, Watkinsville served as the seat of government for Clarke County. However, that year Athens supporters persuaded the General Assembly to designate Athens as county seat. However, residents of western Clarke County were unhappy about the change. The dispute ended four years later when the legislature created Oconee County out of the western half of Clarke County.
“Where are they/we going to get the money?”
Presumably part of it would come from the sale of the valuable real estate in Decatur they currently occupy. But, DM, where does it say in the article that the county owns land near the Kensington station?
Per the Kensington MARTA Station Liviable Centers Initiative (LCI) Report Update:
Figure 2.1 shows land ownership in the study area. Out of the 177.5
acres land in the area, 117 acres (65.9%) are owned by the county.
You can read more about the redevelopment plans for the study area here:
https://kensingtonlci.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/kensington-tod-report-lowres.pdf
This could be good. Those county buildings, parking lots, and parking decks are not the best use of land given their location.
But can we use the county office buildings for a new school?
+1
Given the huge infrastructure needs in DeKalb county, spending tons of money to build new county offices out on Memorial seems misguided.
So are the buildings that dumpy inside that repair would be cost prohibitive overall, or is this a legacy thing? I guess we shall see tonight. If Dekalb isn’t paying to use them (are they?) then getting something that could generate revenue from the land would make sense. It would be nice to have super local Ponce City Market, with a few chain stores (the horror!!!). There are some ok clothing places locally, but sometimes you just need some basic slacks or an LBD, and that’s hard to find on the square. Having a West Elm wouldn’t be horrible either.
There’s been a slew of zoning activity around the Kensington area. I wouldn’t be surprised if this isn’t an effort for the government to get in bed with developers looking to build mixed-use residential/commercial offerings around the Indian Creek MARTA station. A neighborhood group was able to beat back several proposals, but in the end, the county screwed them and is allowing development of the land right by Indian Creek. Lee May is trying to capitalize on this interest in the area and cash in land holdings.
Sounds like Lee May took lessons from Atlanta’s pro sports teams. “These facilities are old-ish and not keeping us competitive! We are going to need some big concessions or we may need to relocate!”
Heh.
But seriously, what leverage does DeKalb have over Decatur on this? I think that this is bad use of Dekalb’s money, as well as being an awesome opportunity for more insider cronyism corruption with regard to building the new digs and any possible associated development. But it’s far less clear that Decatur itself will suffer a lot if the county offices take off for elsewhere. We’ll lose some workers, which may be bad for local businesses in the short-term, but in the long-term, if those properties are redeveloped it may help out our tax digest a lot.
Yeah agreed. It’s just funny that the Dekalb offices fancy themselves a couple notches above tinted glass and red brick. Nobody is expecting terrazzo floors and frameless glass offices during their trip to visit the Parks department or file paperwork with the GIS staff. Mismatched chairs and 8.5×11 signs taped to the walls seem about par for the course.
I think Decatur small businesses, especially daytime restaurants, will suffer. I’ve always had the impression that DeKalb County workers support them during the weekday. Working COD residents are only around evenings and weekends to support them.
Some would definitely take a hit on the lunch business. I don’t see it happening though. DeKalb is under too much scrutiny to spend that kind of money.
“DeKalb is under too much scrutiny to spend that kind of money.” — You’d think so, unless you reminisced about all the times you’ve thought to yourself, “They’re doing WHAT? Jeez, you couldn’t make this up, nobody would believe it!”
Totally. I don’t think many residents realize how different the city is during the day than in the evening. It’s an entirely different set of patrons for local businesses, and they really need both to stay competitive in the high rent area of downtown.
I too worry about what this means for small local businesses, especially the restaurants. It seems like that’s a huge chunk of the lunch crowd.
Chipotle will see a drop in their lunchtime business for sure.
I’m pretty sure I would be glad to see them move out of the city. Would this include the offices/departments in the red brick buildings only? Or would other offices located around the square be included in the move?
After all the annexation and new cities, what will DeKalb County even need a building for? Maybe they could rent a small office in one of those shared office places that provides a receptionist and access to a copy machine.
That made me laugh.
Will the new DeKalb Stadium have luxury boxes?
For the right price!
where do i get my PSL?
If this results in the courthouse parking deck going to the City of Decatur and then being upgraded to have better lighting and signage, an occasional police patrol, and less urine in the stairwells, I will be happy.
Folks on this blog are coming off as elitist snobs when it comes to the county. You should care about any improvement in the surrounding area as it will have an impact on you. For a long time, the county was all Decatur had. Now that Decatur is all fancy, people want to look down their noses at DeKalb. Decatur needs DeKalb to thrive in order to have continued success. You would be wise to remember that.
sorry dad.
You needed a reminder, son/daughter, and I gave it to you. You’ll thank me when you’re older.
“And when there was no crawdad to be found, we ate sand…”
“You ate sand?”
Might have to watch that tonight – thanks for the reminder!
You’re welcome. I haven’t seen it in a few years myself, but the dialog is memorable.
Seriously, consider the impact to Decatur if the City of DeKalb incorporates, moves their offices to the Kensington LCI (not necessarily in that order), then petitions to change the county seat from Decatur to the City of DeKalb taking the weekday court action to Kensington and Memorial. The weekday business hour population of customers for the restaurants and shops will plummet in just a few years.
This move may be related to the proposed City of DeKalb. That will stop the new cities and more annexation.
I heard the Kensington PSLs are gonna be brutal.
36 responses and NOBODY has suggested Trader Joes move into the space. Either the dream has died or you’re slipping, folks. š
No worries–WalterM down below is keepin’ the TJ dream alive…just deferred. š
Maybe we should look on the bright side of life here: less traffic! So does this mean the road diets, 25MPH speed limits, and our general dislike of cars campaign is working? County workers living hither and yon who couldn’t walk or bike to work might get less soul-sucking commutes now. Pity the poor people in the courthouse (including jurors) who must still drive into Decatur, but maybe they’ll move in a future phase. And then maybe Decatur businesses will follow. Years from now we may look on Memorial Drive as the Midtown of Decatur and the Square as our new Underground Decatur.
And for the vacated space, I recommend 1. a Trader Joe’s; 2. an REI Express; 3. another pub. That should take up most of the space.
City of Decatur takes the Commerical property from Dekalb County.
Dekalb County takes the County Business out of the City of Decatur.
The County gets a developer to turn the property into low income living for families. Providing the City with more kids for a great education.
But that would put the “boot guy” at Chick-Fil-A” out of business. Is he still in business?
But on the bright side, y’all could put a Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s or whatever it is that folks are always lamenting about not having in there. That would be great, a 12 story one!
I worked in the Maloof building, in the former CEO’s (Vernie-Boy) office. That building would be better off torn down.