Downtown projects to change Kennesaw
Area seen as potential ‘destination location’ with new development.
KENNESAW
Downtown Kennesaw will be changed substantially by two projects approved Nov. 19 by the Kennesaw City Council.
With 38,000 square feet of commercial space, Sanctuary Development plans to develop around 7.5 acres on Keene Street for a mixed-use development that will include retail, 77 three-story townhomes, mercantile, three restaurants, offices and breweries.
Built around 1890 on that site, the Kennesaw School/Martha Moore School building will be removed by Sanctuary Development for its Creekside development.
However, the facade of the original historic school will be recreated as the centerpiece of the project.
Dry County Brewing Company and Wise Owl Brewing Company have already signed on to the project, and Lazy Guy whiskey distillery is also poised to join, according to Chad Howie, president of Sanctuary Companies. Sanctuary is developing the project alongside Core Property.
“It’s going to redefine downtown Kennesaw as a destination location,” Howie said.
On the adjacent 15 acres and in cooperation with Sanctuary Development, Core Property Capital (CPC) proposes to develop along Summer Street, Keene Street, Burrell Court and Cobb Parkway a mixed-use concept, containing apartments, retail, restaurants and townhomes in two phases.
The first phase will include 288 multifamily units at four stories, 15,000 square feet of restaurant/ retail and a 3,000-square-foot redevelopment of Lighthouse Baptist Church with a new main building and fellowship hall.
CPC residential lease rates will range from $1,225 to $2,300 per month.
Beginning early next year, CPC’s $61 million project will be completed by late 2020.
CPC’s second phase on four acres will begin by next summer and also be completed by late 2020 with up to 110 multifamily units and 20,000 square feet of first-floor commercial or 40,000 square feet of commercial.
An institutional owner and a developer of retail, office and multi-family throughout the U.S., Core Property Capital owns and manages $2 billion in assets, encompassing more than 6.5 million square feet.
Downtown Kennesaw will be changed substantially by two projects approved Nov. 19 by the Kennesaw City Council.
With 38,000 square feet of commercial space, Sanctuary Development plans to develop around 7.5 acres on Keene Street for a mixed-use development that will include retail, 77 three-story townhomes, mercantile, three restaurants, offices and breweries.
Built around 1890 on that site, the Kennesaw School/Martha Moore School building will be removed by Sanctuary Development for its Creekside development.
However, the facade of the original historic school will be recreated as the centerpiece of the project.
Dry County Brewing Company and Wise Owl Brewing Company have already signed on to the project, and Lazy Guy whiskey distillery is also poised to join, according to Chad Howie, president of Sanctuary Companies. Sanctuary is developing the project alongside Core Property.
“It’s going to redefine downtown Kennesaw as a destination location,” Howie said.
On the adjacent 15 acres and in cooperation with Sanctuary Development, Core Property Capital (CPC) proposes to develop along Summer Street, Keene Street, Burrell Court and Cobb Parkway a mixed-use concept, containing apartments, retail, restaurants and townhomes in two phases.
The first phase will include 288 multifamily units at four stories, 15,000 square feet of restaurant/ retail and a 3,000-square-foot redevelopment of Lighthouse Baptist Church with a new main building and fellowship hall.
CPC residential lease rates will range from $1,225 to $2,300 per month.
Beginning early next year, CPC’s $61 million project will be completed by late 2020.
CPC’s second phase on four acres will begin by next summer and also be completed by late 2020 with up to 110 multifamily units and 20,000 square feet of first-floor commercial or 40,000 square feet of commercial.
An institutional owner and a developer of retail, office and multi-family throughout the U.S., Core Property Capital owns and manages $2 billion in assets, encompassing more than 6.5 million square feet.
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Sunday hours to begin at some Cobb libraries
Ross Williams 9-9-18 MDJ
Upgrades to the Charles D. Switzer Library in Marietta will include an enhanced area outside. Staff-Kelly J. Huff
Three of Cobb County’s libraries will be opening on Sundays, at least through the school year, starting in October.
Mountain View Regional and South Cobb Regional will be open from 1 to 5 p.m. starting Oct. 7. Kemp Library will also be open Sundays because West Cobb Regional is closed for renovations.
Switzer Library in Marietta, which serves as the library system’s headquarters, begins Sunday service today with the same hours. Switzer has been open Sundays during the school year for the last two years.
Commissioner Bob Weatherford said the libraries stopped offering Sunday hours after the economic downturn of 2008, and this move brings service back to pre-recession levels. He said it’s a change that is overdue.
“I was always a proponent of doing it at regional libraries, those that are used the most,” he said. “I’m not a proponent of doing it at the smaller libraries, ones that are not used that much. … Even years ago, the decision was to go to a regional library concept, and we got away from that during the recession, but with the new North Cobb Regional Library opening next year, we’ve got West Cobb, South Cobb and the others, that’s been the concept, to have these larger, more feature-rich libraries.”
Weatherford predicted the Sunday hours would draw more people to the regional libraries.
“People are going to find out the regional libraries are there, see how nice they are, what amenities and features they have and start to frequent them more during the week as well,” he said.
Cobb Public Safety Service Director William Tanks said the duration of including Sunday hours depends on whether the money is there to pay for them.
“At a minimum, we will have the regionals opened on Sundays for the school year,” he said. “We are working with our anticipated budget to see if the restoration in year one will be for the school year or the full year.”
The service expansion comes after a period of time in which some Cobb libraries have been under threat. In February, the MDJ reported on a proposed a plan that would have closed eight of the county’s 17 libraries in an effort to address a budget shortfall at the beginning of the year.
That document was created in response to county commissioners’ directive in October 2017 for county staff to cut nearly $2.9 million from the library system in an effort to address a projected shortfall in the fiscal 2019 budget.
But the shortfall did not materialize after commissioners narrowly voted to increase property taxes.
Sunday hours sound like a great idea to library supporters like Rachel Slomovitz, a self-described library super-fan from east Cobb.
“That makes me so happy,” she said. “For a number of families, it’s very difficult to get to libraries during the week, and Saturday is kind of a catch-up day. Sunday is a very wonderful time for families to access libraries. … I love it because Cobb has all kinds of breaks coming up, that gives people the opportunity to grab books every day of the week.”
Slomovitz said libraries are important for more than just free books; they let people without internet access get online, allow lonely seniors and others the chance to get out of the house and provide free activities for families.
She was one of the library patrons who spoke out at public meetings when it seemed the libraries could close. Now, she says that effort paid off.
“We’re thankful that the library is going in this direction,” she said. “We were so worried we were going to be shutting down libraries and we were going to have large areas without libraries, now we’re going in reverse of that. I’m very proud of Cobb for doing that.”
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My comment: About time.
Cherokee County is always open Sun 2-6 pm. The Cobb Library has been totally Fed up for years and they are still doing poorly.
Director Poyer and heads of the regional libraries are overpaid.
See also: http://cobbcountylibrary.blogspot.com/
