This story has been updated.

Avondale Estates, GA — Avondale Estates is sharing more information about a proposed 80-room hotel near the city’s Town Green.

During the Avondale Estates City Commission work session on April 27 the city presented plans for the commercial development of the Town Green, the boutique hotel and an 11-unit town home development.

City Manager Patrick Bryant noted that this the beginning of the conversation about these projects. The city commission and the DDA have not made any final decisions about these projects.

“Even though the DDA and [city commission] have decided to move forward with three project proposals, there’s still a lot of work to be done,” Bryant said. “That proposals that you will see tonight [Wednesday] are still in their concept phase. Design past renderings is being done right now, but it has not been delivered to us. Feasibility studies on the viability of one of the projects in particular are still ongoing.”

The city doesn’t currently have a hotel, and this is likely the first hotel in the city’s history. The city says the hotel and adjacent commercial development will improve the city’s tax base.

Valor Hospitality will operate the new business. ForrPlaces proposed the hotel project and will be the developer of the hotel. Beer Growler owner Jason Graham is one of the partners in ForrPlaces. The companies are going through the due diligence process for design, operating feasibility and financing.

The hotel will be custom to Avondale Estates. It will be tied into the National Reservation System in order for it to succeed. The best way to tie it in is to partner with a hotel flag, like Hilton, Marriott and IHG, Bryant said.

“When we say partnering with a flag, the hotel itself, though custom to Avondale, would be within a brand portfolio of one of the major hotel flags,” Bryant said. “We’ve got multiple flags who are interested in this property and those details are still to be finalized.”

During the Wednesday work session, commissioners discussed an intergovernmental agreement between the city and Downtown Development Authority to transfer downtown properties owned by the city to the DDA to facilitate the redevelopment of those properties in line with the city’s downtown master plan.

The Town Green project includes construction on four-acres of the land. About two acres will be a park and the other two acres will be the commercial development. The site is located along Highway 278/ North Avondale Road between Lake and Oak Streets.

The DDA will secure certain portions of 90 N. Avondale Road to consolidate it with Edwin Jarvis and Finder’s Keepers Fashions and 4 Lake Street. These pieces of properties are located next to the Town Green. A retail project with a full-service hotel with 80-82 rooms, a rooftop event space, ground floor retail and a wrap-around public parking deck is planned for the area.

The parking deck will have 185 spaces and be behind the town homes and hotel, so it won’t be visible from North Avondale Road. Most of the spaces in the four-story parking deck will be reserved for public use to meet the demands of visitors to the park and businesses. A limited number of spaces will be dedicated to the town homes and hotel.

The area nearby would be a live-work residential town home community with 11 units, which would be constructed simultaneously to the hotel-retail project. This project was proposed by Fabric Developers, the company developing the Town Green. The bottom level of the town homes will be retail or office space.

“We’re very excited about this project because…the overwhelming majority of housing stock available in this city is the single-family detached residence,” Bryant said. “We want to, as a stated goal, diversify the housing stock available in the city, whether that be apartments for rent, condominiums for purchase, town home units for purchase, town home units with retail or office use on the bottom. We want to diversify the housing stock as much as humanly possible, and this project delivers to help us achieve that goal.”

The DDA will also obtain the parcels at 64, 68 and 70 N. Avondale Road for the Town Green mixed-use market development as a multi-tenanted ground level neighborhood restaurant and retail row, according to the IGA the city commission is considering. The properties are near the intersection of North Avondale Road and Lake Street, which has been planned to be the commercial development of the Town Green.

If the city commission and DDA move forward with these projects, city staff will make sure the developers work together to curate the retail and restaurant spaces and ensure that they complement each other.

The city currently owns these properties along North Avondale Road and at 4 Lake Street. The DDA purchased the Finders Keepers and Edwin Jarvis buildings several years ago in anticipation of the Town Green being constructed.

“The intent was not for the DDA to remain in a property management role indefinitely, but to control the development of this valuable land when the opportunity for ‘placemaking’ came. That time is now,” the city’s website states. “Nonetheless, the DDA is committed to working with these businesses to try and find an alternative location in the City that works for them.”

Finders Keepers owner Lee Ann Willis said in a Facebook post she is excited about the future of her business and is looking at available space in the area with help from the DDA.

The city on April 28 published the following announcement about plans for Commercial Development near the Town Green.

“The city built the Town Green to enhance the quality of life of Avondale Estates’ residents. City leaders also intended for the Town Green to act as a catalyst for high-quality development throughout the downtown that would achieve several goals, one, diversifying the city’s tax base…also to help reduce the burden on single-family residential homes as the primary source of City revenue,” Bryant said.

Several years ago, 90% of the property tax revenue generated for the city came from single-family homeowners.

“But also we want to position Avondale Estates as a primary destination within the Atlanta metropolitan area for dining, retail and entertainment,” Bryant said.

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