East Cobb News

Earlier this month, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal announced that Smyrna-based Floor & Decor, a do-it-yourself home improvement retailer, was moving its headquarters to a nearly-vacant office building at the Wildwood office complex.

The 16-story, 329,000-square-foot building at 2500 Windy Ridge Parkway, where Coca-Cola Enterprises once had office space, has only one current tenant.

That’s meant that the commercial tax digest has dropped to nearly nothing since Coke and other tenants moved out over the last two years.

Floor & Decor has applied for a tax abatement with the Development Authority of Cobb County, which is slated to act on the request next week.

Floor & Decor, which has agreed to a 12-year lease to expand its headquarters and add a projected work force of around 500 employees, is seeking $16 million in development-issued bonds.

A 19-year-old company that operates more than 90 stores in 26 states, Floor & Decor has built a major distribution facility in Savannah and launched an initial public offering, according to Bisnow.

With a 10-year abatement, Floor & Decor would pay 10 percent of its tax obligation in the first year, with that figure rising 10 percent a year until the full rate is paid at the end of that period. During that time, the development authority would hold title to the property, which would be taken off the public tax rolls.

Another tax abatement request, by Home Depot, is seeking nearly $50 million in bonds for a long-term office lease in the Cumberland area and would bring in 700 new jobs.

Part of the abatement request process is briefing the Cobb Board of Education, and both were presented Thursday.

Amy Gerber, an executive with the real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield, said at a school board work session that before Coca-Cola and other tenants moved out, the assessed tax value of 2500 Wildwood was around $23 million. Now it’s around $17 million.

But the tax benefit to the Cobb school district has plummeted, she said, estimating around $100,000 in annual lost revenue for schools in the last two years.

The Development Authority doesn’t need school board approval to issue bonds, but chairman Clark Hungerford and executive director Nelson Geter provided information and answered questions.

School board member Randy Scamihorn of North Cobb asked if the district would lose out if Floor & Decor gets the abatement and then leaves.

Hungerford said the district is currently losing out now, and that deriving greater tax revenue as the abatement decreases is a win for the schools.

“You don’t lose anything, you achieve increased revenue,” he said. “You have not given anything back.”

If a building stays empty or nearly vacant, Hungerford added, then there’s a problem due to “continued deterioration. . . . That would be a loss.”

East Cobb school board member Scott Sweeney concurred: “It really is in our best interest to see the commercial tax digest in our county grow.”

The Floor & Decor and Home Depot requests are coming up as the Cobb Development Authority is involved with another tax abatement issue in the Powers Ferry corridor that’s going to court.

Earlier this summer, the authority issued $35 million in bonds for Kroger, which wants to build a superstore at the new MarketPlace Terrell Mill mixed-use development.

In June, East Cobb citizen Larry Savage, a former Cobb commission chairman candidate, contested the issuance of those bonds. In September, a Cobb judge invalidated the bonds, ruling that the proposed economic benefits don’t justify a tax break.

Kroger is appealing. (Here’s more from the school board about that project.)

MarketPlace Terrell Mill developers Eden Rock Real Estate Partners and Connolly Realty have purchased the entire 24-acre tract at Powers Ferry and Terrell Mill roads. That includes the former Brumby Elementary School, where the Kroger would be located.

Ground-clearing for the rest of the complex, which includes restaurants, small retail and a luxury apartment complex, has just gotten underway.

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