It might have become a FedEx distribution facility, a giant shopping center with a Bass Pro Shop, or a casino.
The possibilities — along with the contracts — to remake a near-vacant fiber optics manufacturer on I-85 have seemed nearly endless over the last decade. But the “industrial slum” that’s long been seen as a potential gateway to Gwinnett County did not become any of those things.
Instead, if all goes according to plan, it will open this summer as a film studio.
A college to educate film workers will follow soon after. And, over the next 10 years, the site of the OFS plant on Jimmy Carter Boulevard will add dorm rooms, office buildings, a hotel, multi-family housing and retail space to support what developers hope will be a vibrant development that transforms the south end of the county.
Already, the Atlanta Media Campus is further along than any of the other proposed projects. Movies like “Fast and Furious 7” and “Mockingjay” have filmed there. It’s already won approval from county leaders, who see it as key to efforts to revive the area. Residents support it. And those watching from afar are largely optimistic about its prospects.
Michael Hahn, managing director of developer Jacoby, said the site has been “notoriously difficult” to redevelop. The earliest groups that looked at it would have torn down a large building constructed and never used by OFS. Jacoby will keep that building and construct sound stages inside it.
After OFS scaled down — from 5,000 or so workers to about 300 — the effect was like having a military base leave the area, said Chuck Warbington, executive director of the Gwinnett Village Community Improvement District. There were fewer workers to eat or shop nearby. The hotels were no longer needed. The addition of a median on Jimmy Carter Boulevard made access harder. Surrounding businesses were devastated.
“There was a chain reaction,” Warbington said.
OFS started to quietly market the property in 2005. The first offer, in 2006, would have put the Bass Pro Shop and other ventures on more than 100 acres. In retrospect, Warbington said, it would not have been sustainable. A state Supreme Court decision that kept a Tax Allocation District from forming on the property spelled the end of that proposal.
The district now exists, an added incentive for developers.
The FedEx facility tried to go on the site, but Warbington and others wanted a project that would have more impact and talked company officials into looking elsewhere. The casino was well-received by some, but there was no support for it from the governor’s office. Other ideas came and went.
The area needed something big, something that would bring it back to former glory. Something that would bring property values up and create a halo effect outside the immediate area.
The existing plan is the best thing that could have happened to the site, said Scott Ball, a senior project manager with planners Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. Too much retail would have been hard to absorb, he said, and taking the like-new building down would have been a waste of a unique feature.
In a lot of ways, Ball said, the county’s future is tied to the success of the site. Post-production studios are likely to develop around it, bringing more jobs. It could transform the area.
County Commissioner Lynette Howard said the movie industry’s economic engine will be a catalyst for improvement. Norcross Mayor Bucky Johnson said he, too, expects spillover into that city that will rejuvenate the area.
Hahn, with Jacoby, hopes this development will have the same effect in Gwinnett that Atlantic Station had on Atlanta’s west side. With the Eagle Rock TV studio finishing construction nearby and the Drury Inn becoming a Hampton, the ripples have already started.
The praise, though, is not universal. Bijan Khosravi was supposed to start an innovation lab at the site, but said the area’s traffic issues led him to pull out. The technology companies he wanted to move there wouldn’t even visit because of those issues. While transit has been proposed for the site, it would be many years before it was a reality.
“Without a plan for a better road system, it’s a dead-end project,” Khosravi said. “It will not work.”
Still, others remain optimistic, saying that many film workers would live nearby, or work during hours that didn’t require them to fight rush-hour traffic. Jacoby also will be required to make some traffic improvements in the immediate area.
Fran Lutz, the CFO of Eagle Rock Studios, said the concentration of film and TV assets will help change the nature of the area. And residents like Chuck Paul, the past president of the Southwest Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce, said he thinks the location, with easy access to Atlanta, will be a huge draw for the industry — and therefore, the county.
“I think this is a winner,” he said. “I think the spin-offs are limitless.”
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