Sprayberry Crossing redevelopment to begin a year after demolition

It was a year ago this week that demolition began on the Sprayberry Crossing Shopping Center, and the site at Sandy Plains Road has sat empty since then, surrounded by fencing.

Land disturbance permits are expected to be issued soon, with the first phase of construction commencing by the summer on a 132-unit apartment building for seniors aged 55 and older.

Atlantic Residential’s redevelopment plans also have been evolving over the last year for a project it is calling East Cobb Walk.

When the Cobb Board of Commissioners approved rezoning in 2021, the plans called for more than 30,000 square feet of retail. The Lidl grocery store chain backed out beforehand, due to traffic access problems.

A more recent but incomplete site plan showed that retail has been cut down to 14,500 square feet: a 13,000-square-foot building in front of the Mayes Cemetery, and 1,5000 square feet of space on the ground floor of the senior apartment building.

Tim Carini, one of the leaders of the group that opposed any apartments on the site, even for seniors, thought the name change ironic.

“There is nowhere to walk within this development,” he said.

But when he saw the lesser space for retail, he said that “the County needs to hold this developer to that number” that is included in a stipulation letter that was part of the rezoning approval.

“Without this retail for the community, all we are getting is apartments and townhomes that are squeezed as tight as possible into this property,” said Carini, organizer of a Facebook group called Residents Against Apartments At Sprayberry Crossing.

Shane Spink, who led citizen support of the redevelopment and has been part of a post-rezoning site plan review, told East Cobb News he and other supporters also were taken aback by what appeared to be less than half of the proposed retail space.

He said he was later told by Richard Aaronson, the CEO of Atlantic Residential, that the developer intends to “maximize the commercial buildout for commercial use as provided in the zoning.”

He said the site plan reflecting only 14,500 square feet of retail space was an engineering rendering produced without the developer’s input that was meant to be a “placeholder” for a final plan.

“We apologize for any confusion and will circulate an updated site plan that identifies maximum commercial density provided by the zoning,” Aaronson told Spink. “We do intend to start marketing the commercial parcel once site work is initiated in the coming weeks.”

East Cobb News has contacted Aaronson and Atlantic Residential for more information.

The senior apartment building will be the first phase of construction for East Cobb Walk, tentatively slated to get underway in August with completion by September 2024. Those units are one and two bedrooms and there will be amenities in the builidng.

The 102 townhomes will be the second phase, scheduled to start in January 2024. That developer was to have been Pulte Homes, but that phase will be built instead by Toll Brothers. They will be around 2,000 square feet each (renderings below).