The $103 million Riverwalk development, planned for the heart of Cobb County’s Cumberland business district, appears to be dead after developers on Thursday withdrew their request for a judge to authorize bonds that would finance the project.
The Cobb School District filed a legal objection to tax breaks being offered to developers by the Cobb County Development Authority. John Williams, founder of Post Properties, applied for the tax breaks and would have been a major tenant in the planned 10-story office building with an option to buy it.
The 10-year tax incentives would have cost the school system $4.3 million, which caused them to file a legal objection to the bonds being authorized by a Cobb Superior Court judge.
Tad Leithead, who is chairman of the Cumberland Community Improvement District and who worked as a consultant for Williams, released a statement after the court hearing that said the developers were “very disappointed” to not be able “to proceed with our project.”
The statement says that the developers relied on the tax incentives for the project.
“Unfortunately, the Cobb School board intervened and challenged the incentives offered by Cobb County,” the statement says. “We attempted several times to settle the matter with the school board, but were unsuccessful.”
Cobb schools currently are struggling with an $80 million budget deficit.
The statement goes on to say that developers will consider “alternatives, which would include selling the property or developing it with less investment and no office building.”
The plan was to build the office building, 236 apartments and 14 town homes on seven acres, located about one mile from the site of the new Atlanta Braves stadium.
Read more later on myacj.com or in Friday’s The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
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