GlobeSt.com UPDATE: Marietta Shoots Down $63M Redevelopment

MARIETTA, GA-What would have been a major coup for 15-month-old Madison Retail LLC has turned into a non-event as city council members rejected a proposed $63-million, mixed-use redevelopment on the site of a long-blighted Cobb County corner. John A. Williams, the former founder and chairman of Post Properties Inc., is one of Madison’s principals.

Elected officials in this suburban city, 10 miles northwest of Downtown Atlanta, voted 4 to 2 against the Esplanade, a project that would have brought 86 attached townhomes, 118 loft-style condominiums, 73,000 sf of retail, 24,000 sf of office, a 29,250-sf grocery story and 717 parking spaces to the site of the 65-year-old Johnny Walker Homes complex.

Among the factors that shot down the project was Madison’s inability to find a grocer anchor for the project and Madison’s request to the city for $10 million in tax district funding to build a parking deck, area consultants and brokers who attended the public meeting tell GlobeSt.com.