By Annie Mayne amayne@mdjonline.com, Sep 24, 2024
Kennesaw and its development authority will soon own prime real estate in the city’s downtown — but not for long.
The City Council unanimously approved an intergovernmental agreement with the Kennesaw Development Authority last week, agreeing to loan the KDA $700,000 for the purchase of the historic Collier Building, next to the infamous Wildman’s Confederate Surplus Store.
The KDA will pay the remaining $200,000 necessary to execute the deal.
According to Luke Howe, Kennesaw’s economic development director, property will then be sold to a developer “of the city and the KDA’s choosing.”
The city and KDA could also choose to go through a request for proposal process for purchase and offer financing through the KDA or put out an RFP and issue bonds to renovate the property, which Howe estimated would cost between $1.5 and $2 million.
Councilman Anthony Guiterrez told the MDJ last week that no buyer has been confirmed yet, but interested parties have proposed putting a mixed-use development on the site, with businesses on the street level and residential or office space above.
“If it’s something like that, continues the patterns of other buildings we have on Main Street ... modernizing our Main Street, making it a more friendly place for business and something that people from outside the city would want to come visit ... I can see myself fully supporting it,” Gutierrez said.
From the Marietta Daily Journal, 9/24/24