Higher Education Presence Closer to Reality in Smyrna

With a 6-1 vote from Smyrna’s City Council, Georgia Highlands College is one step closer to opening a campus in Smyrna. The next step for the two-year college is to seek approval from the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia.

Georgia Highlands is an associate degree-granting community college of the System of Georgia. Founded in Floyd County 41 years ago, the college is non-residential and maintains six sites including those in Rome, Cartersville, Marietta, Dallas and Douglasville

The college has outgrown its Marietta campus at Southern Polytechnic University and is seeking to relocate its campus to the vacant one-story space next to at South Cobb Drive and Pat Mell Road.

If approved, the Smyrna campus would open in Fall 2012. The school would enroll 1,000 students and employ a staff of 75 with the possibility for growth over the course of the lease at the 45,000-square-foot building.

Among the positive impacts the school could have locally would be to assist in stabilizing the North Smyrna commercial area by reducing building vacancy and business turnover. The school would also constitute Smyrna’s first higher education presence within the city limits and become a tool in attracting industry.

With the exception of Mike McNabb, council member Ward 4, the council voted to issue bonds through the Downtown Development Authority in the amount of $2.03 million to be used for tenant improvements. This bond would be repaid monthly over the life of the 10-year rental agreement at an interest rate of 3.5 percent.

Essentially this agreement is a lease between the building owner (BRIH Cobb Center Partners II), the City of Smyrna, the Downtown Development Authority and the Board of Regents. The building owners would also provide and finance $454,000 worth of additional improvements.

Now that the council has approved the resolution, it will go before the Board of Regents. If the plan is approved, the Board of Regents would pay a base rent amount of $283,500 a year that would flow through the city of Smyrna, which would then pay it to the DDA before it eventually reached the building owners.

The Board of Regents would also pay the city of Smyrna $180,000 a year at which point the city would then pay the DDA $180,000 a year plus the city’s commitment of $60,000 a year. And then all of those payments would be turned over to make debt service payments to the bondholder.

Teri Anulewicz, Ward 3, and Melleny Pritchett, Ward 1, both cited the opportunity a Georgia Highlands campus presents for students in Smyrna.

“I’d like to point out is that Kennesaw State (University) tuition is a lot higher than Georgia Highlands, although it’s only a two-year college,” Pritchett said. “This will give a lot of young people an opportunity, I believe, that would not have one otherwise to get a good start then to move on.”

Anulewicz echoed Pritchett’s opinion.

“I think this is a wonderful location for Georgia Highlands College,” she said. “It’s available easily by public transportation no matter where you come from in Cobb County. Kennesaw, again it’s a lot more expensive and it’s not as easy to get to for someone who lives here and is limited.”

In casting his dissenting vote, McNabb explained that while he agreed that Georgia Highlands College would be an asset to the community, he “didn’t support this particular form of city incentive.”

McNabb clarified his view after the meeting.

“I just think that the city getting into the area of offering rental subsidies is something that we ought to stay away from,” he said. “It’s always for a good cause, but once you start it becomes almost impossible to say no. And I think it just represents government creep. I think we ought to stay away from it and I didn’t think it was necessary in this particular case. Certainly Georgia Highlands is an asset to bring to the city and to bring to that particular location and I support that.”

Anulewicz noted after the meeting that this type of bond agreement is standard practice.

“Generally with the Board of Regents, when they go to locate a college or university, it's pretty much the norm for the city to donate buildings or donate land or to help with incentives,” she said.

Patch will provide further coverage of the city council meeting on Tuesday.