BUSINESS
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2013/Marietta Daily Journal
PAGE 13BB
Keeping ‘area vibrant’ Town Center CID, university help spur growth during hard economic times By Geoff Folsom gfolsom@mdjonline.com
KENNESAW — The Town Center CID has long been among Cobb’s faster growing commercial areas. But 2012 was a particularly strong year for the community improvement district. Taylor & Mathis Inc. of Kennesaw was ranked among the top commercial developers in the Atlanta area during 2012, largely because of the work it did preparing a new $24 million Home Depot customer support center in the Chastain Meadows office park in the Town Center Community Improvement District. The 80,000-square-foot call center opened with an Oct. 8 “board cutting” ceremony featuring Gov. Nathan Deal and Home Depot Chief Executive Officer Frank Blake. It now employs 500 people and will house 700 jobs by early summer. Bill Hackett, Home Depot’s senior director of online customer operations, said he divides his time between Town Center, a similar facility in Ogden, Utah, that also opened last year and the company’s
Vinings headquarters. He said workers at the Kennesaw facility helps Home Depot’s web customers who contact them via telephone, email and live chat. “If customers have questions about products or they want to compare products, we provide that option to them,” Hackett said. Hackett praised Home Depot’s partnership with Cobb County government and the Cobb Chamber for landing the site. An economic development agreement with the county capped a number of Home Depot’s fees. Being located close to Kennesaw State University is also helpful. “We felt there was a really strong recruiting base here,” Hackett said. Along with Chastain Meadows, Kerry O’Brien, Taylor & Mathis senior vice president, said the company is actively developing nearby Town Park. That area saw the expansion of Kaiser Permanente’s health center, adding 78,000 square feet in 2012, along with 100 new jobs. The facility now has 500 total workers. “There’s been a lot of com-
Staff/Samantha M. Shal
Margaret Winston, Home Depot Kennesaw Online Contact Center site director, left, and Thomas Tonge, resolution specialist, show the Home Decorators Collection quadrant of the $24 million customer support center, which opened in October of 2012. mercial development here over the last couple years, when there’s been virtually none in other parts of Atlanta,” O’Brien said. In addition, Novelis, a global aluminum rolling and recycling company, moved a research and development facility from Canada to Town Center, bringing in 150 new jobs last year, said Town Center CID execu-
TOWN CENTER CID STAFF
Mason Zimmerman chairman, Board of Directors
Lanie Shipp executive director
Mary Lou Stephens
Jennine Duelge
Robert Maddux
Communications director
Financial secretary
project manager
Lynn Rainey legal counsel
tive director Lanie Shipp. “That was a real coup to get that,” Shipp said. Travel into Town Center could be helped by the July reopening of a long-closed stretch of Big Shanty Road, which had been divided by construction of Interstate 75. The $27.4 million route provides an east-west alternative to the busy Barrett Parkway and Chastain Road. Several smaller stores also opened in the area in 2012, including the second Del Taco currently in Georgia and a Maddio’s Pizza. Shipp credits the CID and KSU with keeping the area vibrant during hard economic times. The CID, with help from county, state and federal governments, funds road and infrastructure projects, including more than 40 miles of sidewalks. Shipp said the university provides labor and customers for restaurants, while the area
has businesses that could serve their longer-term careers. Not to be outdone, new businesses are coming to Cumberland, Cobb’s other CID. In the past year, new Zoë’s Kitchen and Pollo Tropical restaurants have opened at the Akers Mill Shopping Center. And a five-story hotel is going up east of Interstate 75 that will include three restaurants. In addition, another Del Taco opened north of Interstate 285 on Cobb Parkway. Commissioner Bob Ott said other commercial development has gone on closer to east Cobb, where a new LA Fitness and a car wash opened close along Powers Ferry Road. And in the Merchants Walk development near Johnson Ferry and Roswell roads, the Seed Kitchen & Bar opened, and a wine bar will open soon. Another Zoë’s Kitchen recently opened nearby.
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