$50 MM Sports Complex May Replace DeKalb's Defunct PDK Development

On-site at the PDK property: Patrick Henderson, ASC; Jay Leslie, KW Commercial; Melvin Sprawls, ASC


A youthful Tuskegee University alumni and former Air Force “brat” born in Taiwan, is proposing to develop a 28-acre property across the street from PDK Airport that Chamblee Mayor Eric Clarkston once viewed as crucial to the city’s economic future. Patrick Henderson, CEO of one year-old, downtown-based Atlanta Sports Connection, plans a large sports complex where for nearly a decade; there were dreams of an International Village commerce center. Atlanta Sports Connection’s website describes the company’s service as a “social lounge for intramural sports players in the Atlanta area” and the parent company of what is proposed to be the Atlanta Sport Complex.

Henderson, a Californian who relocated to Atlanta in 2001, says there is an acute need for highly professional and large sports facilities “inside I-285”. So now, across Chamblee-Tucker Road from PDK Airport, a proposed hotel, outdoor performance theater, offices and retail for international trade may give way to a covered football field, playing facilities for most organized sports, athletic medical offices and meeting rooms targeted for local “charter schools”, sports leagues, corporations, professional teams and airport visitors. The change in concept and type of financing is a stark example of a shifting business landscape in the 21st century. Whereas the original mixed-use vision for the site was seeded by a loan from what would become a failed regional bank (Colonial, Alabama), entrepreneur Henderson says his project’s financing is from a $50 million “private capital raise”.

Henderson’s realtors, Jay Leslie of KW Commercial First Atlanta and Atlanta Land Group’s Robert Armstrong found the site for the developer, excited that the project fills a unique need, as compared to a glut of over-promised and hyped “mixed-use” projects in the area. The sport complex developer more bluntly characterized the one-time Village plan as “a square peg in a round hole”, citing a lack of community support as one of the Village project’s hurdles to overcome. An Atlanta Business Chronicle article reported the Village property owner, PDK Investment Group, LLC declared bankruptcy in early 2008. The site was then advertised for a sale price of $12 million, now owned by Kennedy Funding (New Jersey) and Belgian/Dutch bank, Fortis, Belgium’s largest employer.

Negotiations for the property purchase have been complicated, testing the buyer’s patience. Henderson would only say that he is not paying $12 million for the property, but points out that his company’s lower offer is not the primary factor holding up the purchase. Realtor Leslie lamented that the bankers’ confusion over the loan has been the biggest problem, saying the Atlanta group actually had to arrange for Kennedy and Fortis to discuss the loan between themselves and that they had never seen the property for which they had assumed loans. The original loan to PDK Investments to purchase the property was from Colonial Bank in Alabama, shuttered last year by the federal government. Fortis also failed in Europe in late 2008 and is now BNP Paribas-Fortis, adding to the small Atlanta sports company’s tribulation.

Emphasizing his commitment to develop in DeKalb, entrepreneur Henderson projected, “we have a 99% chance of acquiring the Chamblee site”, but parenthetically mentioned an alternative location in Doraville.


Government Involvement
Henderson expects no problems with zoning, however the regulatory action is required according to Chamblee Mayor Clarkson. The property was zoned specifically for the International Village development.

Henderson also foresees a working relationship with the county government. “We just met with the county (DeKalb Development Authority-DADC) and they are very excited about the project”, Henderson said Monday. Saying he was familiar with the original “partnership” between the finance authority and the defunct mixed-use development, the sports enthusiast mentioned that the development incentives being discussed would be similar.

DeKalb County had originally assembled this property, starting in 1997, as part of a larger tract by buying dozens of residences as part of a noise abatement plan along the airport flight path. The county then sold this 28-acre portion to the original developer, PDK Investments, for $3.7 million in 2005 and heavily promoted the project. DeKalb owns the abandoned property next door, now considered greenspace. Asked to comment on past county government involvement, DeKalb’s Communications Director Burke Brennan said, “it was a project that the Office of Economic Development worked on in 2004-2005. I don’t think anyone can answer the question of why it (was not successful)”, alluding to PDK Investment’s bankruptcy and foreclosure.

DADC has recently been thrust into the limelight in regional news coverage related to its plans to issue bonds for a government property purchase of the former General Motors (GM) factory site in Doraville. The property purchase was considered an incentive for a Florida developer that conceived a mixed-use area which would potentially anchor a new “transit oriented district” for Doraville. The land would have been owned by DeKalb’s government and leased by the developer with the lease income apparently intended to help taxpayers foot the bill for the bonds.

In 2009, The Georgia Supreme Court sided with State Representative Mike Jacobs (Chamblee/Brookhaven) in a lawsuit against DeKalb County, slamming the door on certain types of bond issues approved by DeKalb’s County Commissioners. The Georgia Supreme Court sided with Jacobs to require a local voter referendum for bonds proposed by the DADC that would be paid for by taxpayers rather than revenue from proposed facilities.

Tom Doolittle is a 17-year Northlake area resident, founding trustee of Northlake Community Alliance, Inc., founder Northlake Business Forum and writes the www.NorthlakeStation.blogspot.com

Northlake Leader is Governor's Pick for Interim State Schools Chief

44,000 petition signatures needed for access to November election

by Tom Doolittle

William (Brad) Bradley Bryant has been tapped by Governor Purdue to fill the State Schools Superintendent job recently vacated by Kathy Cox. Cox heads to do nonprofit work.

Bryant, who was apponted to the State School Board in 2003 by Purdue, had recent high profile roles in representing the governor and DOE with two failing county school systems--in 2008 serving as one of two liaisons between the state and the troubled Clayton County Board of Education after the district lost its accreditation.


The lifetime Northlake area resident and education advocate from now-closed Henderson High School was a DeKalb School Board member and/or chairman from 1990 to 2002. Bryant attended Northlake's Henderson Mill Elementary School and was in Henderson High School's first 8th grade class upon the school opening in 1968. The future public servant graduated from Washington &Lee University in Staunton, Virginia and earned a law degree from Mercer University. Bryant also served as president of the National Association of State Boards of Education, the Georgia School Boards Association and the National School Boards Association Southern Region


The Republican plans to gather signatures to run as independent for a full four-year term, he said. Cox resigned after the state qualifying deadline, so Bryant cannnot run as a Republican.

Cox's sudden resignation split the superintendent's race wide open. Vying for the GOP nomination July 20 are John D. Barge and Richard Woods. The three Democratic candidates are Beth Farokhi, Joe Martin and Brian Westlake.

Attend Re-Imagining Shallowford This Weekend June 19

8:30 registration & coffee; 9-noon meeting, St Pius High School, 2674 Johnson Rd NE, Atlanta 30345



The May 22 meeting was a good beginning; on June 19 we dig deeper. We began to form a Vision of our "village"; a subgroup is coalescing the many visions into one Vision for review on June19. We will also review a summary of the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) exercise. Then participants, in small groups, will talk about how that Vision Statement breaks down into details, like what it means in terms of land use, transit, parks, etc. We'll end with a "Road Map" to implementation of the Vision.


May 22 wrap-ups posted at www.northbriarcliff.org: SWOT exercise output summary & photos.

Sponsors: TABASCO Coalition (DECA & NBCA) & Commissioner Jeff Rader. Facilitator: Davis Fox.

More info: tabasco@northbriarcliff.org

Commuter Rail Spurs Smart Growth

Northlake "Station"? One day.
http://clatl.com/freshloaf/archives/2010/05/26/report-atlanta-macon-commuter-rail-could-spark-smart-development

The rail line could jump start and change land-use patterns surrounding the stations, bringing walkable streetscapes and mixed-use development — two features that young, mostly single people and couples are increasingly seeking when they look for a place to live. Aging residents could also benefit from this type of environment because they wouldn't have to drive to go shopping or could connect to transit. Throw in the fact that the train stops could revitalize the downtowns of cities along the routes,

Georgians for Passenger Rail, which began with the mission of connecting universities between Athens and Atlanta with train service, has changed priority to the Atlanta-Macon route due to the $88 million federal "earmark" from 2004.

Shallowford “Village” Effort Moves Forward Without ARC

by Tom Doolittle

A 1960's Suburban Strip Center and gas station at the Frontier Road neighborhood gateway can be revitalized for more "town-like" activity at Shallowford and I-85

What's Next

2nd Vision Exercise
St. Pius High School
June 19, 2010
8:30 to Noon


The group that is trying to add the first level of planning (a “vision”) to revitalize about a half-mile radial area around the Shallowford Road/I-85 intersection was not able to persuade county officials to apply for an ARC Livable Centers Initiative grant in 2009. So the TABASCO Coalition (Transform and Beautify Along the Shallowford Corridor) is moving forward with participative workshops on its own.

It’s not as if the group hasn’t tried for planning funds. County planners did submit an application to the ARC for Shallowford within its “Community Choices” program in March. However, as North Briarcliff Civic Association member Beth Nathan put it, “We were told that our project was larger than what they wanted to take on”, after a month’s review. They also met with the Georgia Conservancy’s Blueprints program in 2008 and 2009.

The first “Re-Imagining Shallowford” vision session was held at St. Pius High School on Saturday, May 22. The private school is located within the proposed boundaries of the neighborhood planning area. The vision session was attended by about 40 people who had an opportunity to provide ideas and discuss areas of agreement and disagreement. A smaller group of six now moves forward to coalesce what was said in a concise mission statement, which may include naming the area.

Chances for future ARC funding may be bettered due to activism by a county commissioner, Jeff Rader. He is a former ARC executive and a transportation professional. Further supporting, one of DeKalb’s ARC board representative Davis Fox is leading the “re-imagining” effort. The process will conform to the ARC’s workshop guidelines so that the area can qualify for future transportation design and construction funds.

The “D-word” for many long-time suburban single-family dweller is density. The notion of a mixed-use, live/work/play and essentially any re-development immediately invoked a question about “higher” density among session participants. Subsequently, in a subsequent meeting designated to hammer out a “mission statement”, it was agreed that a village might not change the number of residences per acre and in fact, has as much of a chance to decrease it. The opportunity, says Davis Fox, is to use the same acre for more compressed (higher buildings) units so that more greenspace can remain.


What’s a Neighborhood Center? Smaller than a Town Center
So-called “character areas” arose from the DeKalb Planning Department’s most recent view of the next natural progression of land use development—into pod-like pedestrian-friendly “nodes” where mass transit could more effectively serve the most people moving from node to node—and probably living there, rather than traditional suburban single-family subdivisions far from work, shopping and services. DeKalb’s newest update of its comprehensive land use plan, says “(neighborhood centers) should complement the character of neighborhoods and the location of commercial areas should reduce automobile travel, promote walkability and increase transit usage.”

Three scales of “character” are identified in the two year old latest comprehensive land use plan—the largest of which is a high-density city-like regional center, such as the Northlake Mall area and Perimeter Center; a medium density “town” center, including Tucker and Druid Hills Road/Executive Park and the most “village-like” type, the neighborhood center, which includes Shallowford. According to DeKalb’s comprehensive plan “The intent of the Neighborhood Center Character Area is to identify areas that can serve the local neighborhood’s needs for goods and services.”

Shallowford can in some ways be viewed a Northlake area gateway, as are several others: Lavista/Tucker, Embry Hills, Chamblee-Tucker (corridor), Oak Grove/Lakeside and US 29/I-285.

With its progressive Livable Centers Initiative (LCI) started in year 2000, the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) has put its stamp of approval on plans that can be generated from the “bottom up”, by nearby citizens, business groups and institutional entities. The Northlake LCI was the first in DeKalb, a grant of $450,000 to plan and design streetscape improvements along Lavista Road near Northlake Mall. Northlake Community Alliance, Inc. was formed by a combination of residential and business interests, foremost being managers of the three of the largest commercial property owners in the area, Northlake Mall, Northlake Business Park and the colloquially named “Best Buy Shopping Center”.

At the time, the county comprehensive plan did not support the development of a higher-density area there, thereby jeopardizing any notion of live-work-play. County planners played catch-up and in 2008 and formally adopted more than a dozen live-work-play character areas throughout DeKalb. Apparently, the number of character areas can also evolve, depending on where commercial property developers feel higher-density is marketable-or land is “underutilized”. The new neighborhood center at Druid Hills and Briarcliff Roads was added to the Comprehensive Land Use Plan after the Sembler Company of St. Petersburg, Florida unsuccessfully proposed a high-density development that would promote similar projects on all four corners of the intersection. Executive Park is also now its own “town center” in conjunction with parts of Buford Highway.

Rader said it is best for local interests to initiate plans for creative re-development and re-vitalization. “The idea is to get ahead of any development proposals so that they can be merged with what the neighborhood has prescribed.”

Mary Scott Nature Preserve: Who and How (2003)

Originally published in the Community Review Newspaper (later The Story Newspapers)
--November 13, 2003


Hawthorne Area Greenspace Invokes Northlake Park Network
By Tom Doolittle

Nearly eleven (11) acres of undeveloped land that divides the Brookdale Park and Flair Forest Subdivisions, near the intersection of Briarcliff and Shallowford Roads, has been owned by DeKalb County for about six months and cleanup activities began last week by the Parks Department. The property belonged to the Arthur M. Armstrong family has been uninhabited since 1988, says Art Armstrong, who inherited it from his mother, Mary. The Armstrongs refused to sell to developers in the 1960s, leaving the site enviably tucked into a very large neighborhood. Northlake subdivisions grew up around the Armstrongs, many with “natural” areas like nearby Lake Flair parceled out to private owners and miles of lowlands that have been youth havens for decades. “This land (Armstrong’s) fills a void in the park system—a big factor in pursuing it”, said Tina Arbes, DeKalb’s Assistant Administrator in charge of the Parks/Greenspace Bond Program. (See http://dekalbgreenspace.com for a map of property acquisitions, including an expansion to Henderson Park and a “Creek/Trail” acquisition on Barkside Court near Embry Hills.)

Arthur M. Armstrong, the son of Arthur Hammond Armstrong (memorialized Georgia Tech Athletics Director), was an English teacher and track coach at Druid Hills High School until around 1970, after returning from the Pacific Theater in WWII. Mr. Armstrong modified a former hunting shelter into a house and carved a quarter-mile dirt entrance drive off of Briarcliff Road. Young Art Armstrong was raised there, born in 1945, attending the original Tucker Elementary school before shifting to a “new” Oak Grove School in 7th grade and was a member of (former) Briarcliff High School’s first graduating class. The area means a lot to Art Armstrong and his boyhood home means even more.

“The last thing that spot needs are a bunch of new zero lot-line homes”, Armstrong says. “What it does need, is a place where a large neighborhood can congregate and relax. People have always had to get in their cars and go a ways to find a park.” Nearly 600 homes make up Flair Forest, Brookdale Park and Briarmoor Manor, the primary feeders to Hawthorne Neighborhood School, another recreation site. All have access to the Armstrong property on connected subdivision streets. Safe crossings on Briarcliff and Shallowford could afford half-mile access to 2000 households. Unrelated and not widely discussed, the DeKalb’s Trail Master Plan includes a North Fork Peachtree Creek Trail nearby, which would connect Shallowford Road with Mercer University and other individual local greenway initiatives.


Local Advocacy: Alliances and Coalitions Get Attention

“I had already been talking to members of Shallowford Presbyterian Church. They wanted to preserve the area behind them, but didn’t have the money”, Armstrong added. Some homeowners, including members of Flair Forest Garden Club and Hawthorne Civic Association, submitted an official “property nomination”, to be considered for county recognition by the County Greenspace program. The locals then combined forces with the church to advocate for a public purchase, ultimately gaining County Commissioner Gail Walldorff’s support. Armstrong’s for sale sign came down in the spring—the preservation idea had teeth. “We were fortunate to work with a land owner that was sympathetic (to the goals of the greenspace program) and to have several groups come forward”, says Administrator Arbes. The land was purchase for $2.12 million with, about 40% paid for with county funds—with contributions from the Georgia Greenspace Program and Blank Foundation.


Greenspace or Park?

Dave Butler is DeKalb’s Greenspace Environment Manager. Distinguishing greenspace from parks, he says “the goal of preserving greenspace is ultimately to improve water quality”. Until eight months ago, Butler was head of the South Peachtree Creek Nature Preserve, an all-volunteer nonprofit organization that sub-leases low lying land from the county. Butler says the future of each new greenspace will be driven by locals. He says the decision has already been made to name the former Armstrong property “Mary-Scott” after Art Armstrong’s mother and her lifetime friend Scott Brown, but will it be called a “Park” or “Natural Area”?

Beth Nathan is a member of the Flair Forest Garden Club and also on the Board of Hawthorne Civic Association. Nathan understands the value of neighborhood advocacy in communicating with a land owner, county officials and other nearby partners, like churches (in the Armstrong case). She says, “the County is open to suggestions (as to property use) and I understand that people will be able to walk into (the property), but not drive in.” Nathan included some information about the County purchase in a Labor Day Garden Club newsletter. “I also tried to include something in the Hawthorne Civic Association annual meeting newsletter, but there wasn’t enough space”, she said.

While speaking with Butler, I overheard a site manager on a walky-talky confirming his instructions to clean up the remains of the Armstrong home, crushed by falling trees long ago. The chimney will be left standing for posterity.

Lakeside, DeKalb and Georgia Rank High in AP Tests

From the Lakeside High School PTA Newsletter, March 1, 2010

Georgia, DeKalb and Lakeside Receives AP Honors!


Georgia has the 12th Highest Percent of Seniors Scoring a 3 or Higher on AP Exams according to The College Board's AP Report to the Nation released last week. This report measures progress of the class of 2009.

State Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox recently named more than 125 Advanced Placement (AP) Honor Schools. Among those 125 were eight DeKalb County high schools: Lakeside, Avondale, Chamblee Charter High, Cross Keys, DeKalb School of the Arts, Druid Hills, Dunwoody and Southwest DeKalb.