FLOWERY BRANCH – Development in and near downtown Flowery Branch took a big step forward Thursday evening as the Flowery Branch City Council approved second reading of a rezoning application that will affect historic Main Street as well as East Main Street near the intersection of Phil Neikro Boulevard and Thurmon Tanner Parkway.
Atlanta developer The Residential Group has plans to accomplish several things in Flowery Branch, from rehabilitating the former city hall, to constructing a 300-plus-unit apartment complex, to providing a handful of commercial sites.
Flowery Branch Mayor Mike Miller said in a telephone interview that five one-and-a-half acre outparcels would be developed as part of The Residential Group’s strategy. “Which are the perfect size for the larger national chain restaurants…and so the hope would be as those apartments begin to develop there we can get some more restaurants and retail out there on Phil Neikro.”
Miller said constructing the apartment complex will happen first. “That is the first part of The Residential Group’s project to do the Main Street downtown redevelopment, retail shops and apartments on the second floor that will be on Main Street where the old City Hall building is.”
Miller said that while the developer still has to get final drawings and elevations approved by the city he expects construction to begin early in 2019. Miller said all aspects of the developer’s plan should be finished in 18-months.
When asked what he knew about the planned apartments, Miller said from the information he was given by the developer, “The price points of those would be at what I consider a pretty high socio-economic level.” Miller said that similar projects elsewhere by TRG tend to attract single professionals primarily, with a few smaller families mixed in.
Additionally, Miller said other similar communities built by The Residential Group have demonstrated minimal effect on school systems.
Miller said preliminary drawings include pedestrian and bicycle paths linking the complex to downtown Flowery Branch and the retail/restaurant businesses that the city is trying to attract to the historic area. “It will probably be some younger couples or single professionals that have an active lifestyle that would like to take part in accessing downtown and the retail things that we hope will come to downtown.”
“This will be the first domino falling in that whole downtown redevelopment plan that we did back in 2014.”
