By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
DEC. 6, 2019 | Gwinnett County got an unexpected kick in the teeth this week, when North American Properties reneged on its partnership agreement to build the $900 million “Revel” project at the Infinite Energy Center.
Meanwhile, the Gwinnett Convention and Visitors Bureau (GCVB), which was guiding the development, said the project was being “Paused,” and a new partner would be selected. The 118 acre development had been anticipated to open in 2021. It was planned to become the entertainment focus for Gwinnett, 12 screen theatre, restaurants, retail activities and bowling lanes. It was expected to draw patrons from in reality, all of Northeast Georgia, as it was to become the closest big entertainment district in the area.
But that won’t happen any time soon now.
Yet the news isn’t all bad. CEO Preston Williams of GCVB, told us Wednesday that he is “more than confident about the overall entertainment district product long range. We’ll sit back during the holidays and see how it shapes out, but our phone has already rung on this today. There’s big interest out there in picking up where we stopped. We think it will move on quickly.”
The Revel project did not include the convention center hotel that Concord Hotels out of Raleigh, N.C. will break ground on in mid-January, 2020. Construction time will be for 22-24 months, meaning it will open in January, 2022.This will be a first class, four star Westin Hotel with 347 rooms and rooftop entertainment area adjacent to the Infinite Energy Center. The lease for this facility was signed two years ago. Williams adds: “Actually, with the hotel construction soon underway, this area will be more attractive to the next developer of the entertainment district.”
Another major aspect of the overall area is a new 50,000 square foot addition to the Gwinnett Convention Center. Williams says: “We’ve already got this addition designed and contracted for, and will break ground in February next year. It is fully committed and funded. With what we now have underway, plus this expansion, we are spending $220 million on the hotel, a 50,000 square foot addition, new entrances and roadways, a service drive, and stormwater retention. We soon will have lots of construction activity underway.”
Already opened last year are two giant parking garages, with space for 2,400 vehicles, among the largest, if not the biggest, in suburban Atlanta.
The now-lost “Revel” project was a mixed-use project. It had anticipated 300,000 square feet of retail space, and another 865,000 square feet of office space in several mid-rise buildings. It was also proposing 900 apartments to be built around all these activities, at several levels.
North American Properties developed the Atlantic Station in Atlanta, Avalon center in North Fulton County, and is re-developing Colony Square in downtown Atlanta. It often compared the new Gwinnett development to Avalon. It also has projects in Cincinnati, Tallahassee, Franklin, Tenn., Orlando, Texas and other places. It has been in business since 1954.
North American Properties, we have learned, also recently stopped work on the “High Street” project in Dunwoody and another major development in New Jersey.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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