John Williams is Moving His Company From Cobb to CoA (Atlanta: real estate, 2014)

[jsvh]

Column: John Williams says Cobb school board ‘kicked’ him ‘in the ass

Goodbye Cobb County. For the first time in 40 years, John Williams— the legendary apartment developer and metro power broker — will not be based in Cobb County.

Williams signed a lease on March 28 to move his current company — Preferred Apartment Communities — from the One Overton Park building where he has been for 10 years to the Medici building on Northside Drive in the city of Atlanta. The move is a direct result of a $100 million mixed-use project near the Cobb Energy Centre proposed by Williams getting turned down for incentives last year by the Cobb County school board.

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Williams, founder of Post Properties Inc. and a major booster of Cobb County, was instrumental in the building of the Galleria, the Cobb Energy Centre, the forming of the Cumberland Community Improvement District, and the renovation of the town squares in Marietta and Smyrna, and is a former chairman of the Cobb Chamber of Commerce and the Metro Atlanta Chamber. He also is a minority owner of the Atlanta Falcons. Although Williams was upset that his development deal fell through, the move to the Forum is being done for business reasons.

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Williams, however, did not hide his displeasure with the current politics in Cobb. “We had an opportunity to build a world-class mixed-use development, but there’s a reason there hasn’t been a new building of stature built in Cobb in 13 years or a new class A hotel in 20 years,” Williams said.

And while he said he’s happy the Atlanta Braves will be moving to Cobb, Williams said, “there’s a lot of concern in Cobb County about the cost of the Braves, and who is going to pay.”

Williams also was unhappy with the way he was treated by the school board. After appearing at the board meeting and waiting for two and a half hours, board members did not allow him to speak on behalf of his project.

“I’m only willing to be kicked in the ass once,” Williams said. “A lot of Cobb County politics has been taken over by the Tea Party, and being a member of the Tea Party doesn’t equal having an IQ.”

I think it was a wise move for Cobb not to grant the tax breaks he was wanting for his development. But Cobb has opened the flood gates with their handouts to the Braves and the surrounding developments and now everyone wants a cut. And Cobb seems to be handling these things poorly and are burning bridges even with some of their biggest former boasters.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by jsvh

I think it was a wise move for Cobb not to grant the tax breaks he was wanting for his development. But Cobb has opened the flood gates with their handouts to the Braves and the surrounding developments and now everyone wants a cut.

Williams' application had been pending a long time. But I agree that Cobb needs to up its game if they plan on staying where they are. Forsyth and Cherokee as well as Fulton and Gwinnett will be nipping at their heels.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by arjay57

But I agree that Cobb needs to up its game if they plan on staying where they are. Forsyth and Cherokee as well as Fulton and Gwinnett will be nipping at their heels.

With a population of about 717,000 people, it might be a stretch to say that two much lesser-populated and still largely semi-rural counties (like Forsyth and Cherokee) are nipping at the heels of Cobb County. That's because Cobb County has over 500,000 more residents than further-outlying Forsyth and Cherokee counties.

It's also probably a stretch to say that Fulton County (despite the extreme dysfunction of its county government) is nipping at the heels of Cobb County when Fulton County has about 260,000 more residents and much more heavy development and economic wealth than Cobb County.

(...Fulton County has about 5 major commercial/business districts in Downtown, Midtown, Buckhead, Perimeter Center, Alpharetta compared to only about 2 major commercial/business districts in Cobb County at Cumberland and Town Center.)

It's also difficult to truly compare Gwinnett County with Cobb County and say that Gwinnett is nipping at the heels of Cobb because Gwinnett County has over 140,000 more residents and a larger geographic footprint than Cobb County.

Gwinnett County also has much-different socioeconomic and demographic makeup than Cobb County with racial and ethnic minorities making up nearly 60% of the county's population in Gwinnett compared to being only about 45% of the population in Cobb.

With its unique geographical location (in Northwest Metro Atlanta at and beyond the intersection of Interstates 75 & 285) and socioeconomic makeup, Cobb County is pretty much in a lane of its own at this point.

Cobb County is not going to be hurt by the defection to Atlanta of one unhappy real estate developer who was likely asking for too much in tax breaks in the first place.

With the Atlanta Braves' stadium project supposedly proceeding ahead, there will likely be 5-10 new developers to fill the place of the one that just left.

Heck, Williams himself might even go back and get a piece of the action with so much that is going on in Cobb County these days.

Williams is just disgruntled that Cobb County recognized that it did not need to give him the house in tax breaks and incentives after the county landed the Braves and his relatively much smaller project seem totally unimportant by comparison.

Cobb County residents especially were not going to go along with giving Williams so much property tax/school tax revenue when so many people (particularly parents) are complaining loudly that Cobb's highly-prized public schools are being vastly underfunded.

[sherlockjones]

Good riddance The last thing cobb needs is another high density housing project to clog up traffic even more.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by sherlockjones

Good riddance The last thing cobb needs is another high density housing project to clog up traffic even more.

Because low density, sprawl has been so successful in the past. By focusing high density development around transit stations, it will encourage some residents to use alternate transportation.

[jsvh]

Originally Posted by sherlockjones

Good riddance The last thing cobb needs is another high density housing project to clog up traffic even more.

This attitude is why Cobb has the worst traffic. Sprawl creates more traffic, density means less. And building a new tax funded stadium for the Braves without MARTA connections is going to do "wonders" for the traffic there.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll

With a population of about 717,000 people, it might be a stretch to say that two much lesser-populated and still largely semi-rural counties (like Forsyth and Cherokee) are nipping at the heels of Cobb County.

True, but those folks up in Forsyth and Cherokee don't mess around.

Forsyth went from a little old 44,000 to 188,000 in just twenty years.

Cherokee went from 52,000 in 1990 to over 221,000 today.

They are flat on fire.

[Mutiny77]

Originally Posted by arjay57

True, but those folks up in Forsyth and Cherokee don't mess around.

Forsyth went from a little old 44,000 to 188,000 in just twenty years.

Cherokee went from 52,000 in 1990 to over 221,000 today.

They are flat on fire.

But they are nothing more than bedroom communities. There's very little real industry to speak of within those counties.

[sherlockjones]

Originally Posted by cqholt

Because low density, sprawl has been so successful in the past. By focusing high density development around transit stations, it will encourage some residents to use alternate transportation.

Low density suburban sprawl doesn't cause traffic. When you put one home per half acre, it doesn't take a genius to figure out thats not going to cause traffic. The problem of traffic in an area occurs when the number of people per acre exceeds the existing infrastructure of roads. The traffic issues in this city begin and end with unfettered development. Take the sminings area. It was one of the easiest commutes in the city prior to the mass development of town homes and condos the past 5 years up and down the Atlanta road and East West connector. There is plenty of housing in this city. What needs to happen is to get developers to stop destroying green space and redevelop existing areas.

Its really not rocket science. "Alternate" transportation talk is just kicking the can down the road and not addressing the problem. MARTA goes all the way up 400 and it doesn't relieve much traffic there and it never went to Turner Field anyway. So, working the braves into this discussion is kinda a moot point.

[sherlockjones]

Originally Posted by Mutiny77

But they are nothing more than bedroom communities. There's very little real industry to speak of within those counties.

Whats wrong with bedroom communities? If they had no appeal, they wouldn't be in such demand. What most people don't want is to live on top of their neighbors. There are plenty of big tech companies in Alpharetta driving the growth of cherokee county.