A community town hall on updates and projects for the former Magnolia Crossing property will be held by the South Cobb Redevelopment Authority (SCRA) at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Riverside EpiCenter, 135 Riverside Parkway, Austell.
The Austell Community Taskforce is encouraging members of the Riverside community to attend this meeting, according to its December newsletter.
The SCRA bought in 2015 and tore down in 2016 the Magnolia Crossing apartments at the former 490 Six Flags Drive in the Austell area when 89 tenants resided at the complex that had a 35% vacancy rate.
The SCRA spent $3.7 million of a $10 million redevelopment bond issuance to buy the Magnolia Crossing complex.
On Feb. 24, 2020, the SCRA held an open house for a market study of what is known now as the Riverside community instead of the Six Flags area - the result of a 2016 rebranding effort due to the crime image that had been associated with that area.
Formed in 2011 by the Georgia General Assembly, the SCRA seeks to revitalize depressed areas in South Cobb by marketing around 50 acres near I-20 and Six Flags to developers.
In late 2016, the Cobb County Board of Commissioners approved a mixed-use development for the 12.42 acres owned by the SCRA on the former property of the Magnolia Crossing Apartments and 39 acres of adjacent property.
At that time, co-applicants Stephen C. Yancey and Janet N. Yancey owned 39 acres at 7001 Factory Shoals Road that is next to the former apartment complex and that they wanted to be marketed to developers as well, according to SCRA Chairman Doug Stoner in a letter to Cobb Zoning Division Manager John Pederson on Oct. 7, 2016.
In 2018, additional property was bought by the SCRA for about $2.5 million with remaining funds from the $10 million redevelopment bond, according to cobbcounty.org/economic-development/scra/projects.
As of June, about $791,000 was remaining in the redevelopment bond account, according to bit.ly/3IrDfQ4.
Serving on the SCRA since 2013, Stoner is the SCRA chairman, who helped form the SCRA as a former Democratic state senator.
Stoner also is a former state representative and a former member of the Smyrna City Council.
Information: bit.ly/3DtL7gd, bit.ly/3dpKklR, bit.ly/3otpjwN
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