The Local
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
OCT. 26, 2021 | If you haven’t been to Sugar Hill in a few years, you will find it difficult to believe how much this fourth-largest city in Gwinnett has blossomed. In the last 10 years, the City Council has brilliantly created a new downtown area, now teeming with about 2,000 people living within a half mile of City Hall and enjoying the “Sweet Life.”
While Sugar Hill has had fast population growth—it jumped from 18,522 people in 2010 to 25,701 in 2020—the springing up of the downtown area and its amenities is really astounding.
How has it happened? Both the most recent mayor, Steve Edwards, and the not-yet-elected-but- unopposed Mayor Brandon Hembree agree: it came as a city council worked together harmoniously to achieve its vision and goals. Downtown private sector investment is over $300 million.
You might date the start of the downtown growth with two things: the opening of Sugar Hill’s new fully-paid-for city hall in 2012 and the arrival of Paul Radford in 2013, with him being named city manager in 2014. Previously Radford was the deputy executive director of the Georgia Municipal Association for 12 years. Before that he served as deputy commissioner of the State Department of Community Affairs.
Novare rendering.
Among key elements of its “new” downtown:
- The $46 million E (entertainment, exercise, engagement) Center, a community center, with a major theatre seating 300 for plays, movies, concerts, plus nine restaurants, retail and second floor private offices. It’s made money all along. The city went to the bond market to fund its construction. It overlooks The Bowl at Sugar Hill, a 1,800 seat entertainment venue.
- 300 apartments in The Local, across from the E Center and City Hall. It’s fully occupied. Adjacent to it is the Sugar Hill Cemetery, which the city now maintains, giving additional walking areas for downtown residents.
- The Cadence, on Georgia Highway 20 near the City Hall, another 300 apartments, now underway, with approximately 100 units already rented, and more filled as soon as they are finished.
- Fuqua Development has another apartment-townhouse development on Highway 20 of 289 units, with construction underway.
- The city is working with the Rangewater group with 126 condo-style townhomes planned.
- Magnolia Senior Living and memory care facility is nearing completion on upper West Broad Street, which will have 86 residents.
- Northside Hospital plans a 35,000 square foot medical office building in the city.
Hospital rendering.
Hembree anticipates the city next needs to concentrate on an office component for the city. “As housing expands,” he says, “We are getting more interest in offices.”
Sugar Hill has its own city-owned golf course, which has seen a resurgence in activity since Covid. The 67-acre Gary Pirkle Park on Austin Garner Road has vast recreation fields. The city plans to open 10 acres for Gold Mine Park on Level Creek Road in the spring of 2022. That’s a throwback to the early days of gold mining in Georgia, in the Sugar Hill area. The city has another 22 acres on Cumming Highway, which will be designed as a park. Hembree notes that the Sugar Hill Greenway, its first phase being six miles, is now under construction. He adds: “We want to make the area along the Chattahoochee River a place people come to fish, kayak and hike.”
Then there’s the city’s outdoor ice skating rink, behind City Hall, the only outdoor ice skating rink in Gwinnett, to open this year on November 11, to stay continually busy during the cold season.
Check out Sugar Hill. You’ll be amazed at how fast and how distinctively sweet it has grown.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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