Selig is Planning Mixed-Use Development Along Church Street, North of Ponce
Decatur Metro | May 19, 2016 | 7:50 am
For those interested in the improvement and expansion of walkability in downtown Decatur, this should come as welcome news.
The AJC reports that Selig is planning a mixed-use development in downtown Decatur at the former Laurus Institute and the DeKalb County Probation office sites. Not to mention their lovely street frontage parking lots.
The site states that Decatur Asst. City Manager Lyn Menne anticipates receiving plans for the 5.25 acre site some time this summer.
go you hairy commercial taxpayers
Particularly enjoyed reading the comments on the AJC article which basically boil down to variations on the classic line from Vacation: “Sorry, folks. Decatur’s closed. Moose out front shoulda told ya.”
For anyone looking to recruit volunteers for the Moat Project, it’s prime pickins over there. Newcomers be gone. Sweet stuff.
i resent the implication that Decaturites are anything other than enlightened progressives who appreciate positive and constructive change.
[cracks his buggy whip and trots away]
That’s not even a real gun, Clark.
What are you kidding me, this is Magnum, P.I.!
Lots of potential for this stretch. I wonder if it might jumpstart development of the BOA and 542 Church St. lots.
BofA seemed to be the holdup on that parcel’s redevelopment- they didn’t want to remain in place while building going on or something like that. I wonder when their lease is up? Maybe if they get new space in the Selig development they’d leave their lease early so that parcel is free and clear to take its new form.
I look forward to this. Particularly I look forward to getting some of our most under-utilized real estate in the city moved into the performing and productive category. I do wonder if they can save the DeKalb County Probation office and incorporate it into their plans. That is a great example of a mid-density, mid-century building with great modern lines and lots of windows. Never been inside of it (thankfully) so I don’t know what shape it’s in, but I’ve always admired it from the outside.
Thanks for your interest Selig! Bring us something great.
I would imagine the probation office building is history since the project would be utilizing property on both sides of it.
Sure. Of course. That would be the conventional wisdom. However, many successful urban developments find great success in re-purposing old buildings to create authenticity in a way that only old buildings with character can. It would take some creativity and it would be easier to scrape it and start with a blank site. But that is exactly why I wrote what I wrote – to possibly encourage some creative thinking.
“encourage some creative thinking.” from Selig ?
I originally doubted that they could or would actually put parking UNDER a Wal-Mart. But they got that done. This is the time for optimism.
They really had no choice. That was the only was they could fulfill the zoning requirements with the space and plan they had. I’m sure they would have avoided the expense if they could have.
Have they put up mirrors yet on the entrance to the underground parking? Kudos to Walmart for putting the parking underground and kudos for the strong lighting but the entrance is hazardous.
Suburban Plaza is probably the 3rd Walmart one to get underground parking in the region.
I couldn’t agree more! I thought I was the only one who admired the Bauhaus style probation office building. It would be a shame to lose such a good example of mid-century modern architecture in COD. And would very much help add to the character of the future mixed use development.
Yes! Glad to hear someone else appreciates that building. I would love for it to remain, but it’s toast…
I have always admired that building too. It has nice proportions and it is human-scale.
It barely even qualifies as “mixed-use” these days if it does not include a high end grocery tenant, so lets just go ahead and get those rumors swirling now . . .
Whole Foods Decatur 2.0
Be careful what you ask for or we might get one of these:
http://www.tonetoatl.com/2016/03/exclusive-quiktrip-planning-gas-less.html
So Old Fourth Ward and West Midtown get Jamestown Properties and we get Selig and Fuqua. Hopefully Columbia Ventures can build something interesting/unique.
I know, right? I’m all for the redevelopment of this area, but have doubts about Selig.
Agree! But to be fair, Jamestown tends to favor historic buildings of the pre-war era. Calling this building “mid-century” is putting a very positive spin on reality. It does not look to have “good bones.” Maybe closer to “boneless?”
To be clear, the mid-century one is not the one featured in the photo above, but the brick one down the street – in the background. The one in the foreground with the Laurus sign should go away quickly, please.
From a historic preservation point of view, it’s not a particularly notable building.
If your hurdle for noteworthy means it has to have been designed by Mies van der Rohe, then I guess you’re right. However, our downtown has great examples of smaller-scale office buildings that represent various historical building styles. Art deco over behind Twains, WWII-era(ish) over by Taqueria, and this mid-century modern with great lines here on Church. It’s a nice little collection that tell a story of downtown Decatur in its pre-car lot/auto shop era, which predated the downtown renaissance that was initiated by the downtown master plan. It’s worth looking at saving in my humble opinion. Even if it’s days truly are numbered. You don’t have to agree, Steve.
Speaking of historic Decatur buildings, I also like the one-story red brick building on the northeast corner of Church St. and Commerce. It has a porthole window and according to Google Earth Street View, is the home of Lotus of Life Chiropractic.
I don’t disagree, but in the ranks of historic buildings, that one is pretty low IMO. We do have good examples of many eras in Decatur.
In the early 1960s Southern Bell had offices in this building; I remember going there with my mother to pay our phone bill.
I’d like to see condos instead of apartments so that others can help pay the city taxes that keep increasing.
Can you elaborate on this? Apartments pay city taxes equal to or greater than what the condos pay (in part because apartment residents can’t claim a homestead exemption).
Do you have a sense if the current apartment buildings in CoD are valued appropriately and have been keeping pace with the residential appreciate of single family houses? I don’t think they are. Example: the neat old apt. building on N. Candler w/ tiled roof has appraised value of $585,782, definitely not market.
Are any old houses in Decatur, particularly those without a total overhaul, appraised at market? In my experience, even people who’ve experienced massive increases in their appraisal still have a figure considerably below what they could sell it for were they to list it today. It wouldn’t surprise me if older apartment buildings are similar.
Outside of that, FWIW, I was really talking about new construction downtown which could, in theory and given the right market conditions, be either condo or rental.
My condo in Decatur isn’t appraised accurately. I appreciate that from a tax bill standpoint.
But new condos that would fit in the Decatur market will not get financed for construction for at least another few years. The only new condos that I’m aware of in the region now are high-end, luxury units in Midtown and Buckhead.
It’s a total fallacy that renters don’t pay taxes. Sure, they don’t pay them directly, but the taxes are nonetheless rolled into their rent. Landlords/apartment building owners don’t eat the expense of taxes – they extract their tax payments from their tenants on a monthly basis. More private development downtown means more taxes collected, no matter if its apartments, condos, office or retail.
The Place on Ponce – the new apartments on Ponce wrapped around the bank building – are now taxed at approximate FMV of $13,000,000 (the Ponce fronting building & the parking deck in the middle, not including the Montgomery Street building). They were previously valued at around $1,000,000. So the city tax bill for those parcels went from $16,800 (2014) to $225,500 (2015). It would take a lot of houses/condos to add up to that.
There are about 250 units in the building (couldn’t find exact figures) so that’s only a FMV of 52k per unit. I know commercial property is appraised differently from residential but this seems a little low.
Pretty sure Rival’s post indicates that the bulk of the units on the Montgomery side aren’t included in that valuation. The front building only has around 70 units, if I recall correctly.
There are actually only 28 units in the building fronting Ponce.
I say we don’t allow any more apartments unless the developers and the City make it a requirement to screen potential tenants for levels of fertility before allowing them to lease. Any who are found to be capable of procreating will be denied! Becuz, thuh skoolz…
At first I thought you were suggesting it was because of the risk/benefit of said tenants leaving their curtains open as they are conceiving…
The left hand side of the building in the picture was once occupied by the State of Georgia Merit System Training Center, long before Laurus moved into the space on the right. I was working offsite from Capitol Hill in downtown ATL in that building on September 11, 2001. There were televisions in every room for training purposes and we watched as the tragedy unfolded. I will forever associate that building with that day in our history. I don’t know how I feel about its demise.
If you go back far enough, that building was originally built as a SuperX drug store.
Nobody has mentioned Trader Joes yet. I’m proud of you all.
Perhaps folks have come to realize that having Rainbow, Publix, Walmart, Sprouts, 365, Mega Kroger, and YDFM all forming a siege wall of produce at our border is some kind of signal that grocery stores don’t want to pay the Decatur premium.
It’s not so much the premium as it’s the traffic counts. Grocery stores have razor thin margins and have all grown to a scale where they require a certain level of traffic to be viable.
All the stores around Suburban Plaza have access to 65,000 cars a day. Around North Decatur Plaza it’s 50,000 a day. The mega Kroger sees 35,000 cars a day whereas no spot in downtown Decatur sees above 25,000 (and most are considerably less). This Selig property is at the top end of that so, if any parcel has the potential to lure some level of auto-focused retail, this and the BOA assembly are probably the ones.
Who will speak for the asphalt?
Vintage surface parking is under assault in our community – will nobody will stand up for it?
Decatur once had a noble history of used car dealerships – are we just going to pretend that period never happened?
maybe we can pass a law to give them tax breaks?