Powder Springs to sell land for $38M development

The purchased land would be redeveloped by Novare to construct nearly 5,000 square feet of commercial property to allow for separate retail and restaurant spaces and 221 apartments with surface parking.

The project’s 221 multifamily apartments would create a greater residential presence downtown, which city leaders say would fuel current and new businesses in the corridor and other nearby areas, the city statement said.

“Real estate experts have been telling us for years: Retail follows rooftops,” said Powder Springs Mayor Al Thurman.

“City residents have been seeking new restaurants and other businesses for years, and this will create further potential for those entities to come to Powder Springs,” Thurman added.

“We at Novare Group are honored and excited to be working with Mayor Thurman and his team at Powder Springs on this mixed-use town center development at Thurman Springs Park,” said Jim Borders, CEO of Novare Group.

“We are all in on the Powder Springs vision, the proximity to the Silver Comet Trail and the overall friendly quality of life in southwest Cobb County,” Borders added.

Powder Springs is in the design phase of a project to expand and remodel the city’s existing Municipal Court facility to add a second story to the facility and allow it to accommodate City Hall and Community Development personnel and operations, the city statement said.

The city will relocate its personnel to other DDA-owned properties downtown after moving out of its buildings on the city hall property assemblage and until renovations to Municipal Court facilities are completed.

Novare Group has developed multifamily units in Atlanta, Lawrenceville and Newnan as well as Augusta and across the Sunbelt region from Virginia to Texas.

Since its founding in 1992 by Jim Borders in Atlanta, Novare Group has developed more than 16,500 residences in greater than 50 communities and 1.2 million square feet of Class-A office space, overseeing over $3.5 billion of real estate development and investment, according to its website.

Powder Springs is one of Cobb County’s fastest-growing cities, with an estimated population of 15,758, according to 2019 Census estimates.

Also, Powder Springs is Cobb County’s oldest city when it originally was incorporated as Springville in 1838 and later the nickname “Gunpowder Springs” because of the gunpowder-like sediment that resulted from the mineral content of the spring water.

Today, the city has the closest downtown to the Silver Comet Trail, a 61.5-mile paved trail that runs through Cobb, Paulding and Polk counties.

Information: CityOfPowderSprings.org, NovareGroup.com