Marietta Mayor Steve Tumlin took down the
first pieces of the old Marietta Flea
Market and its surrounding
shops in March.
Mixed-use developments expanding in Cobb
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REAL ESTATE
Staff reports
Once upon a time, Cobb was simply a
suburban bedroom community, according
to Marietta-based real estate attorney Kevin
Moore. But it has since become an employment
center in its own right, a fact reflected
in the county’s changing development
patterns.
The pandemic has likely affected those
patterns, Moore said, potentially turbocharging
the move away from standalone
retail but putting the brakes on growth in
office space.
Bruce Ailion, former head of the Cobb
Association of Realtors, agrees. Online
shopping is convenient, he said; even more
so during a pandemic in which people are
urged to stay home.
“It’s so much easier for me to just go online
and say, ‘deliver it to me,’” he said. “Now
I have a Ring (doorbell), I don’t even have
to go to the front door to see who’s there!.”
As such, standalone retail centers have
been struggling, Moore said. But they have
options.
“I do stand amazed at how resourceful
the development community and retail and
commercial community can be as they seek
to reinvent themselves in different ways,” he
said, predicting success for those willing to
transition to a mix of uses.
One of the largest mixed-use projects
slated for Cobb County will be Eastpark
Village in downtown Kennesaw. Mayor
Derek Easterling said construction is set to
begin at the end of 2020 on that 68-acre,
$240 million project, which will include 900
residential homes including townhomes,
senior-restricted condos, market rate luxury
multi-family homes and senior-restricted
cottages as well as restaurants, office space,
retail shops and an outdoor market project.
Industrial and net-lease properties are
also doing very well, Ailion said.
“As soon as you put it on the market, they
sell,” he said of industrial properties. As for
net-lease properties — those small, standalone
properties frequently occupied by
bank branches, fast food locations and the
like — “those are just on fire.”
Early in the year, Moore said it’s a safe
bet that more office buildings will come to
Cobb. That has changed since the beginning
of the pandemic.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has hit that
sector particularly hard,” he said. “Likewise,
it’s hit the hotel/tourism ind. paretic. hard.
… Neither of those sectors are dead and
have no chance of recovering, I think those
sectors will just have to look to how they
can best manage once we reach a point
when the pandemic is over.”
On the rise
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