Agreed. I'd rather see the site grassed-over or landscaped until a suitable solution is found.

You don't know the half of it.

Branch has done phased development before. They can put residential there and just frame it for now.

Sean- An apartment complex sitting behind a commercial development (which is what the original plan entailed) does not constitute a true mixed-use project. Based on your experience in the rental industry, surely you realize that. In an ideal world I think we would all love to see a true mixed-use project, however, even the most optimist of home builders predicts that is not happening for at least 6-8 years. It is not in the best interest of the community to let that site vacant for 6-8 years with the hope that maybe one day someone will come along and build-out as originally planed. We are not living in 2005 anymore. Time after time our city officials (elected and appointed) have alluded to how important this development is to our city, and I trust they will not let us down. A quality commercial development within the guidelines of the city plans will serve all of us well. I encourage you get behind the developer and city and quite whining that we don't live in an ideal world.

Jals4, "mixed-use" is an umbrella term, in both the common and professional vernacular, that describes several types of combined retail/commercial/entertainment/residential (and even transportation) development strategies. The definition also tends to vary from region to region and locale to locale, so there is no "true definition"…but "surely you realize that." ;-)

Also, I can't say how long you've been posting here, as some of your posts are not showing up in your comment history, but clearly you have not been paying attention since you've been here. You may disagree w/what Sean et al. have posted, but had you been paying attention, you'd realize that group is not who needs to get behind the "city and quite whining that we don't live in an ideal world". That distinction belongs to the "Statler & Waldorf" crowd…the small, yet extremely vocal, group of city detractors and martyrs to negativity that contribute nothing except complaining and sniping. You've just replied to one them above, and it takes little time or effort to identify the rest of that crowd.

jals4: It will not kill them to frame a couple dozen townhomes over shops, finish a show unit, and finish and sell them one-by-one while developing the rest of the property as commercial.

So the questions we need to be asking Branch and thinking through ourselves are:
1.) What kind of retail only development would it take to create a fully leased development soon after being built?
2.) What would make it so special that it would overcome the current down trends in the market?
3.) What impact would adding more retail space to the market have on filling the other vacancies in and around the City?

Smyrna has a lack of quality retail, other than at the new Kroger and at E-W Connector. The retail behind Ruby Tuesday is an outdated building that can't handle high-end tenants because the structure is outdated and almost completely blocked from view. The same is true for the old Kroger location.

The Spring Rd/Atlanta Rd intersection is a prime location for visability. Having some residential in there would help the stores prosper because they'd have more regular visitors. It'd help Market Village as well.

Don't forget that more quality shopping will draw more day shoppers. A lone store here or there isn't going to attract people for a whole day.

Thanks. Someone who'd just freak out like that before the writing dries isn't needed in Smyrna.

Brian-

I've rethought my comment. It was rash and unnecessary. I think that reading through a lot of the comments on Patch is starting to affect me in a negative way. The bottom line is that I am disappointed that this development seems to be getting derailed because of what I believe are misconceptions about what an apartment component would look like and what seems like an ever growing list of demands from residents.

It is frustrating because as much as I want to stay in Smyrna for the long term, it seems like I am going to have to continue to travel to Buckhead, West Village, etc to find places that other people our age like to spend time at. It's not a threat, it just is what it is. At a certain point you stop and ask your self why you live in one place and commute to another for fun/restaurants/life outside work.

Smyrna Res: Keep in mind that these things move slowly. I wouldn't worry too much about Jonquil Village. Smyrna is wooing Branch and a good compromise will be found. It is good we had a full list of requests so the result is somewhere in the middle.

The growing list of demands doesn't slow down development. In fact, developers often want to get an ample amount of citizen feedback. If they don't, they may not build something appropriate for the area. What caused the most problems in this case, from my perspective, is that the city initially attempted to rush this through without gathering enough feedback from residents early on. I think they got overly excited. That's what caused a backlash, and usually from the most vocal of detractors. People just want to be heard and the city needs to more proactive in getting feedback early on. The lack of pro-activity doesn't help anyone and ends up confusing developers when they thought that part was already handled.

The previous plan was a glorified stripmall, essentially, with housing separated from the rest of the development versus integrated into the development. It's almost as if they sub-divided it into two parcels with parcel 1 being strip mall, and parcel 2 being apartments.

Even with the market the way it is, they can do better than that, and they should live up to their reputation from West Village. As I mentioned in the meeting Monday, they can just frame out residential and not fill it in until they get it sold.

Seems reasonable Brian.

We have an opportunity to do something substantial in a great location…but if not done correctly it could be detrimental to Smyrna's future (& that's not hyperbole).

This all reminds me (painfully) of Rock Hill, SC. I moved there at 12, & left at 18, but my family still lives there. Smyrna's similar to RH in many ways (pop. density, demographics, long-serving mayors, proximity to major city, etc), & seems to be following dangerously close to RH's failed growth model.

B/c of poor planning, speculation and a forced, "just build it" strategy, RH has had 5 failed or only marginally successful attempts at establishing a "city center". Not to mention the Civitas/Gateway debacle. RH's Manchester Village has been the most successful development to date, & is similar in some respects to what's been proposed for Belmont Hills, but it's not in the right area of town. The Galleria Mall experiment failed from the beginning b/c of bad location (where MV is now), & it opened at the same time as the bigger, better Pineville Mall. It could never attract decent anchors or shops. Downtown is only a marginally successful niche. The Cherry Rd corridor is littered w/pawn shops, title/payday loan shops, automotive shops, & fast food, etc...nothing wrong w/these in & of themselves, but collectively its a sad, low-rent eyesore…in the most prominent area of town. JP already has a "We Buy Gold" store as its neighbor, & if we're not careful, we'll have more of that type of development there.

Don't forget that more shopping will help the center because it will give more reasons to drive there. Instead of doing all their shopping in some other area, they may do it in Smyrna center (sometimes at the same kinds of stores). A lone store here or there isn't going to attract people to shop for the day.

Brian-
You're kidding right? They DID propose a residential component (apartments) which was vilified by certain residents of this town. Now- there won't be a residential component. You can't make them build something they don't want to (townhomes/condos) and now you can enjoy a strip mall.

Smyrna Res:
I think the original issue was that what they planned was a strip mall, with apartments on the side. This land is zoned mixed-use, and Branch knew that when purchasing it.

Interestingly, they left the apartments area and parking deck out of the drawing. Perhaps they are still debating what to do with that.

Brian, I think you are looking at the LCI concept I posted on this thread...the one in green and yellow is not the Branch concept its the one the City paid to have done several years ago. Its just a preliminary idea...not a very good one I might add. But the key was that it needed to be Mixed Use.

I received an email from Publix after my last inquiry (about a week ago) stating that they could not comment on a property for which they did not have a signed lease. The wording of the email led me to believe that it was one of those " I can not confirm or deny" type emails and it was their second reply to me after prodding. My sense is that Publix is still in play. I doubt seriously Branch would be interested without a major tenant in hand. No bank will loan on retail today without about 60% pre-lease.
I suspect if Branch resubmits, then we will see a plan showing a small to medium Publix grocery store , associated parking and some retail buildings along the perimeter and maybe an out-parcel or two. Then, if the city approves that plan, I suspect they will ask the City to be able to "PAD out" the retail footprints and then they will likely not build those buildings till they have leases. That seems to be the norm with the developers we are working with currently.
I suppose that would be better than whats there now, but wow...what a shame if we truly cant get an urban mixed use project at this location.

Brian, could you please email me the spelling of your last name? You can drop me an email at sydneymbusby@gmail.com. Thanks.

That is excellent news! I don't see why we would not let them pad out an area for future residential seeing as that is what we would probably do for retail as well just like they did at the front of the new Kroger along S. Cobb.

Brian sorry for confusion.
However the picture was appropriately captioned as the Smyrna LCI Study. I uploaded it. I assumed you had seen the other posts on this site that showed the plan they had originally submitted.
Anyone can post pictures and I believe the editor watches to see that they are relevant.

S.J.M. thanks for the clarification.