All Jonquil offers in, final decision coming

According to Ted Sandler, representative of Jonquil Village owners Todd and Cheri Maxwell of Lakeland, Fla., all offers for the complete purchase of the much discussed and delayed 14-acre property have been made and a decision could finally be reached next week.

“I think we have all the offers we are going to get to buy the large tract,” Sandler said Friday. “All the offers are in and I have submitted them down to the client.”

Sandler, an attorney for the law firm Hartman, Simons, Spielman & Wood in Atlanta, explained that one more offer could be coming in for an outparcel on the property along Atlanta Road, but that he didn’t expect that to hold up negotiations. At this point, six offers for the large tract have been made, with two additional offers for outparcels. 

Sandler’s comments come after his previous statement at the beginning of the month that the Maxwells were still waiting on several offers to be officially put on the table before a final decision was reached.

The Jonquil Village property extends northward along Atlanta Road from Spring Road across from the CVS Pharmacy. 

With no grocery store in operation along Atlanta Road from the Marietta Square to inside I-285, city residents have eagerly awaited an official announcement that a long rumored Publix will be built at Jonquil. Several of the developers that have submitted offers, Sandler said, are indeed Publix approved developers — meaning the popular grocery chain is still a good possibility.

Now that all of the offers for the large tract are on the table, Sandler is more confident than ever that the Maxwells will make a final decision soon.

“We will be talking about it over the next couple of days and should have a decision next week,” Sandler said.

For several years, Jonquil Village had been owned and developed by Century Retail Corporation out of Lakeland, Fla. The $185 million mixed-use project was originally to include 30,000 square feet of office space, 160,00 square feet of retail space along with 300 condominiums and 1,300 deck and surface parking spots. The project was originally supposed to open in spring 2009

Century Retail had reportedly invested $17 million of its own money into the project before it stalled due to the struggling economy and the difficulty of retaining construction financing in a tight financial market.

In December, Todd Maxwell, chief executive of Century Retail Corp., essentially foreclosed on himself when he took over the property. The Sembler Company, a St. Petersburg, Fla.-based multi-state real estate developer, signed a contract for the property in March, but that contract was never fully executed.