The plan was to transform a rundown strip mall in northwest Atlanta into a retail hub, one that would bring a grocery store to a food desert and kick-start the area's renewal.
Neighbors welcomed it. Homebuyers counted on it. But nearly a decade later, they’re still waiting on it.
Moores Mill shopping center, a $40 million project off Marietta Boulevard that includes plans for a Publix, was delayed for years by legal challenges that held up promised public incentives. Then, just as the project regained steam this year, South Carolina retail developer Edens learned that federal money needed to build a 300-yard road to the grocery store is entangled in Washington gridlock.
Edens Southeast Vice President Herbert Ames says that the firm needs to break ground by early 2016 to keep the deal and its partners together. Without a road, Publix won’t come, he said.
To that end, District 9 Councilwoman Felicia Moore is asking Invest Atlanta, the city’s economic development agency, to give Edens $700,000 so that the developer can build the road and convey it back to the city. The funds would be in addition to $500,000 the city has already set aside for the road project.
But in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Mayor Kasim Reed laid out arguments for why he believes the city, which has already directed millions toward Moores Mill, should spend the funds on other needed projects in area.
For more on this story and Reed's take, visit MYAJC.com.
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