Mayor and Council emerged from a brief executive session to approve the lease of 5509 Main Street in the historic district to "Growlers on Main", a specialty beer shop selling exotic beers in large jar like containers called 'Growlers' just one door down from City Hall.
Mayor Mike Miller said Growlers would fit right in with the city's downtown redevelopment plans.
"It's another retail establishment that we hope will bring people to downtown Flowery Branch, maybe this is a catalyst to get the redevelopment started," Mayor Miller said. "We had five business proposals for that building; City Council evaluated each proposal and we felt this was a 'niche' shop that fit downtown and what we're trying to with redevelopment."
Customers would buy the beer, but not consume it on premises; Growlers plans to open February 1st.
City Council members each got a draft copy of the city's downtown redevelopment plan and were asked to study it closely by Planning and Community Development Director John McHenry.
The plan resulted from a series of community meetings in which citizens had input on how they wanted to see their town improve.
"I wanted to give you a broad brush view tonight, give you a chance to dive into this," McHenry said. "It looks like we're not going to do the adoption until January 2nd so we'll have plenty of time to make changes to it."
McHenry said the plan calls for consolidation to open up city government occupied Main Street buildings to retailers and having a plan framework ready is 'three fourth's of the battle'. He added that developers have already expressed interest in coming to Flowery Branch.
"Growlers on Main" plans to locate in this building February 1st
Mayor Mike Miller said 'Growlers' would fit right in with the city
Planning and Community Development Director John McHenry
http://accesswdun.com/article/2013/12/268581