PHOTOS, VIDEOS: Demolition of Sprayberry Crossing begins

Sprayberry Crossing demolition begins — *A bulldozer attacks the roof of the former Bruno’s grocery store comes down as the demolition of the Sprayberry Crossing Center began on Monday.*

Joe Glancy and Shane Spink grabbed sledgehammers and took a few hearty belts at the exterior of what had been a Bruno’s grocery store on Monday afternoon.

“It felt good,” Spink said to a group of around 100 people who witnessed a long-awaited moment:

The beginning of the end of the Sprayberry Crossing Shopping Center.

After decades of blight, inviting crime and rodents and just being an ugly eyesore with a pothole-ridden parking lot, what once had been one of East Cobb’s trendy retail centers will be leveled for a mixed-use development.

Glancy and Spink, who spearheaded a community push for redevelopment via their Sprayberry Crossing Action Facebook group, had the honor of taking a ceremonial first swing, along with with Cobb Commissioner JoAnn Birrell.

To say it was cathartic was an understatement.

“Everybody who lives around here probably wants to take a swing,” Spink said.

In early 2018, they organized a town hall meeting at Sprayberry High School that turned out elected officials and county leaders.

While there was little they said they could do—aside from imposing a meager blight tax on the property owner, NAI Brannen Goddard—a residential developer was taking note.

Atlantic Residential, an Atlanta-based apartment builder, would soon be in talks with NAI Brannen Goddard to buy the assemblage on Sandy Plains Road, between East Piedmont Road and Post Oak Tritt Road.

Three years after proposing a mixed-use development, including a lengthy and contentious rezoning process, Atlantic Residential is planning to start construction on townhomes, senior apartments and retail space later this year.

The residential component is being called East Cobb Walk and includes 102 for-sale town homes and a 55-and-older apartment building with 102 units to be named Evoq East Cobb.

“I’m happy with stuck with it,” said Richard Aaronson, Atlantic Residential’s CEO and founding partner.

“It’s just a fantastic location,” he said, explaining his company’s patience. “It was too good of an opportunity to pass up.”

Along with the rebuild of Sprayberry High School, “this area is going to look completely different,” Aaronson said.

He said the anticipated price point for the townhomes could be in the high-$400,000 range, designed to attract young families and first-time homebuyers.

Birrell, who said Sprayberry Crossing redevelopment has been high on her priority list—as well as that of her predecessors, Sam Olens and Tim Lee—saluted residents and community leaders.

“Y’all got the ball rolling, you got the community involved,” she said before wielding a sledgehammer to the Bruno’s building. “It was brought to the forefront to the community.”

Numerous site plan revisions were made in response to opposition by some residents to a general apartment building that was eventually nixed because Birrell wouldn’t support it.

A planned grocery store fell through right before the rezoning case was voted on by county commissioners. Lidl pulled out due to issues over locating the main entrance to the redevelopment on Sandy Plains Road.

Birrell, who is up for re-election this year, stressed that the planned senior apartments “cannot be converted to multi-family.”

Some residents who are skeptical of that claim have vowed to work to defeat Birrell, who has an opponent in the May 24 Republican primary.

While the redevelopment wasn’t exactly how supporters initially envisioned it, Aaronson said that “today is the beginning of something great.

“Today we begin to reverse that eyesore you’ve had to live with,” he said.

As a bulldozer commenced tearing down the Bruno’s roof, the crowd hooted and applauded.

Aaronson said that demolition is expected to take 60 days, and pending permitting issues, construction could start as early as August.