Mayor Discusses Hickory Lakes Purchase

Smyrna Mayor Max Bacon says that the city's purchase of a dilapidated apartment complex at the intersection of Old Concord and Windy Hill Roads in 2010 was an opportunistic measure and not a government entering the land speculation business.

Bacon told Patch that the first thought he had when city staff told him of the offer to purchase the Hickory Lakes complex was, "I don't need that." However, he was swayed by the low price.

"We weren't out knocking on doors trying to buy apartments, they came to us," Bacon said.

Bacon said that the apartments were worth between $24-$26 million when the city was able to purchase them for $9 million in 2010. Clearing the land brought the total cost of the purchase up to $16 million.

The mayor said the city's goal at the time was to help improve the northern part of Smyrna, which Bacon said frankly needed it.

"Those apartments were a drain on taxpayers and caused a lot of problems for people in that area, the school system, and people in other parts of the city," he said.

According to Bacon, the city had a "three foot stack" of code violations against the owners of the Hickory Lakes complex, and said that because of the complexities of the legal system the apartments were allowed to deteriorate while the city's hands were tied.

But why not let the free market decide the fate of the Hickory Lakes site?

Bacon, who said that the longer he is in office the less he thinks the government should control, stated that, "If someone else had bought those apartments, they would have thrown a few coats of paint on the place and two years later they would be back to the way they were before."

During Monday's city council meeting, two Smyrna residents spoke during public comments on why the city did not put the possible purchase of the Hickory Lakes complex to a vote, like the City of Marietta is preparing to do with property along Franklin Road in November.

"In order for us to purchase the property for $9 million, we had to close the sale before the end of 2010," Bacon said. "There wasn't enough time to bring it to a vote."

Additionally, Bacon believes that the citizens of Smyrna already voted on the purchase when they elected their city council members in 2008. Bacon said that council members will vote the way that their constituents want them to vote.

"Everyone who was on the council at that time will tell you now that they would vote the same way on the purchase again," Bacon said.