By Ethan Wright
Athens, GA – Mayor Kelly Girtz discussed the most recent updates on the Georgia Square Mall Redevelopment Project with Grady college journalism students on Feb. 24 at the University of Georgia’s South Instructional Plaza.The project aims to convert the 75-acre mall into a mixed community center featuring housing, retail, entertainment, green spaces, biking and walking trails and public transportation.
The project is priced at $500 million, with only $189 million coming from public funding, and calls for the construction of 1,200 new houses with 10% of these new houses set to be permanently affordable housing, a reduction from the initial proposal of 20% a month earlier. The remodel is expected to increase the population by around 2,057 residents and could affect traffic. To address this issue, the Georgia Department of Transportation plans to reconstruct Loop 10 to ease some of the existing congestion. The project also includes additional sidewalks, walking and biking paths and public transportation.
Before the project can proceed, it requires approval from the Mall Redevelopment Committee, the Leaven Group, the Clarke County School District, whose role hasn’t quite been defined, and the Athens-Clarke County Commission.
Despite the benefits of the project, there are also downsides. The initial plan to include 20% affordable housing is no longer in the works, and the choice of affordable retail stores will depend solely on private contractors. Belk will be the only store left from the mall, leaving the remaining stores to find new locations and employees to find new jobs.
Girtz remains optimistic about the upcoming vote, saying, “You can’t just feel positive. You have to do the things that get you to feel positive.”
Due to Georgia zoning laws, the project has been extended as far as possible, with the initial budget set for Feb. 7. With the final session approaching in the next two weeks, Girtz said, “If it doesn’t happen by then, the developer will have to resubmit. So you know, [that] doesn’t kill it forever, but it creates just a dramatic difficulty that I don’t believe has to exist because I think we get to the finish line.”
The developers and officials will reconvene on Mar. 7 to take another vote.
Why I Wrote the Story:
Mayor Kelly Girtz discusses plans to convert Georgia Square Mall into a mixed community center with 1,200 new homes, retail, entertainment, and green spaces. Despite some drawbacks, the project’s fate now rests with the Mall Redevelopment Committee, the Clarke County School District, and the Athens-Clarke County Commission. During the process of completing this story, i learned how to keep my biases out of my work and let the audience decide their own opinion and I also learned the importance of fact-checking your work multiple times. This story connected to my beat because I was covering the government beat and what better local government figure to interact with on your beat that the mayor.