This story has been updated.

Avondale Estates, GA — The Avondale Estates Downtown Development Authority, at its June 14 meeting, approved memorandums of understanding for the hotel and townhomes that will be near the Town Green, as well as the Town Green commercial development.

The MOUs provide a timeline of 90 days after the MOUs are executed for the DDA to enter into development contracts for the projects.

The Avondale Estates City Commission and the DDA have entered into an intergovernmental agreement to transfer city-owned property to the DDA to facilitate the redevelopment of properties in line with the city’s downtown master plan.

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 townhome development.

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 property are located next to the Town Green. A retail project with a full-service hotel with a maximum of 81 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 townhomes 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 hotel would be flagged by a major chain to get on the national reservation system.

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.

The MOU for the townhomes states the purchase price of the land is $87,000 per unit and the DDA is not responsible for getting the site pad ready for Fabric Developers, City Manager Patrick Bryant said.

The design guidelines for the townhomes will be governed by the city’s zoning code, as they are residential properties, Bryant said.

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 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.

The MOU for the Town Green mixed-use commercial development establishes a flat price for the purchase of the land at $100,000. Language was also amended in the MOU to reflect that all remaining principle on the balance of the loan notes will be satisfied by the sale of the property, Bryant said.

“The draft currently suggests that if the cost of construction is to increase past the original projection of $8.2 million, then any loan amount above and beyond the 40% that the DDA had previously agreed to in principle at that price would be subject to a higher interest only rate, but the servicing thereof would be the same as the original loan,” Bryant said.

Construction is anticipated to begin nine months after the DDA enters into a development agreement for the commercial development.

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