First tenant moves into new Cobb government offices
It’s one down and two to go for Cobb County’s newest government offices on Powder Springs Road.
On April 19, the Community Development Agency — the first of three county agencies that will relocate to the building — opened for business, and thus far, the transition has been smooth, said Rob Hosack, the agency’s director.
“Although we’ve only been here a short time, our employees love the new building. Our clients love it. Visitors to the building love it. And it’s going to be even better once all three agencies are moved in,” Hosack said.
The new offices are located in Powders Springs Station strip mall, a once mostly-vacant property purchased by the county last year as a part of a restoration plan for blighted areas of the county.
The county paid $4.5 million for the 18-acre shopping center. Renovation of the facility is costing $2.7 million, along with $900,000 for landscaping and parking improvements.
The county’s Property Management division moves into the building later this year, followed by Cobb Senior Services -- which will be consolidated from two buildings on Fairground Street -- in 2011. Plans are to pay for the Powder Springs property by selling other unused county buildings when the economy rebounds, said Virgil Moon, the county’s Support Services Agency director, who is overseeing the relocation.
“We’d been promoting renovation of vacant commercial buildings in the county, so with this piece of property we decided to act on our own recommendations. It was a good deal and so we bought it,” Moon said.
Community Development’s former building in downtown Marietta is being torn down to make room for a 534-space parking deck. The new parking deck will be adjacent to the county’s new Superior Court. The $7.7 million parking deck will be paid for with public and employee parking fees. The parking deck is scheduled for completion February 2011. The court building should be completed a month later.
In 2004, the county purchased the 8.3-acre vacant Westpark Plaza shopping center on Whitlock Avenue for $2.8 million. The renovated strip mall now houses the county’s tax commissioner, elections board and SafePath Children’s Advocacy Center.
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