Dignitaries at the Rowen ceremony on Friday included former County Commission Chairman Charlotte Nash, current Chairman Nicole Hendrickson and Rowen President Mason Allstock. Photos provided.
By Brian Brodrick
AUBURN, Ga. | Gwinnett County began a new focus of activity last week, as ground was broken for Rowen, a 2,000-acre, non-profit-led knowledge community located near Auburn, equidistant from Atlanta and Athens off University Parkway.
The Rowen Foundation hosted a formal groundbreaking and tree planting ceremony with more than 150 dignitaries on hand, including Governor Brian Kemp, Gwinnett Chairwoman Nicole Hendrickson and Congresswoman Carolyn Bourdeaux. During the ceremony, the Governor, chairwoman, congresswoman and others planted the first tree on site to signify the beginning of a growing, thriving community. Rowen President Mason Allstock said this “was the beginning of accelerating economic, educational and community growth in Georgia and beyond.”
“The site that will house all kinds of businesses driven by innovation,” said Governor Kemp. “This project both connects our universities physically and also connects their programs, their research, and most importantly, their students. Because of the foresight of local and state leaders and the team at Rowen, Georgia and the world beyond will benefit from the ideas of the future in agriculture, environment, and medicine that will originate here.
“We are blessed in Gwinnett County to have a wealth of economic opportunities that support innovation and job growth, but one of our greatest is Rowen, the first of its kind in Georgia,” said Gwinnett County Commission Chair Nicole Hendrickson. “This groundbreaking is the culmination of key partners coming together over the past two years to lay the foundation for this vision initially set by my predecessors. This vision and foresight is the epitome of the Gwinnett Standard and I could not be more excited to see Rowen finally getting underway.”
The site will eventually include more than 22 million square feet of lab, office and civic spaces alongside a mix of multi-family residential, cafes, start-up hubs, parks and public trails. Initial work will include horizontal infrastructure such as SITES-certified complete streets, trails, sidewalks and a variety of utilities. The new roads will create access to the Rowen Village area as well as medium- and low-density areas of the site for development.
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