The new Belmont mixed use development at the corner of Atlanta Road and Windy Hill Road is going to be a premier mixed use community. The old Belmont shopping center is hopefully going to see life again. The Belmont shopping center in the 70’s was one of the hottest shopping centers in the southeast. It set the pace for the malls we have today. I read an article that said Hollywood would open new movies at the old Belmont Shopping Center and would gauge the success of a movie based on the Belmont box office take. It must have been something to see in the day!

It’s a huge piece of property. It’s a sprawling 47.5 acres right in the middle of the hottest growing area in Atlanta, Smyrna GA. Atlanta Road has made major road improvements. Having this new mixed use development right in the middle of Atlanta Rd will have a huge impact on future development extending in both directions up and down Atlanta Road. In time you will be able to start at the Marietta Square and have beautiful buildings and developments all the way to I285. Take a ride today and you might think I’m nuts. For true it’s coming, now is better than later. Nothing is getting cheaper to develop.

The developer Halpert Enterprises has had to jump through a lot of hoops with Cobb County. Halpert is asking for TAD (Tax Allocation District) financing. Cobb County has set June 26 as the tentative date to approve its TAD guidelines. TAD money helps offset some of the expense in developing a project of this proportion. For instance TAD financing was approved for the Jonquil Square development right down the street. This projected needed to build underground parking for 1000 cars at a cost 18 million dollars. You had to have the parking to make this project work. Without the TAD financing the project would still be on the drawing board or an old run down strip center would still be there with half empty store fronts. Why give any developer TAD financing? Because Cobb County will get bigger and better reoccurring long term tax revenues from the new development. It’s a win - win situation for the city of Smyrna and Cobb County. I personally hope Cobb County approves the TAD guidelines that will allow the Belmont project to move forward. Halpert Enterprises is hemorrhaging money as they wait for the commission and school board to approve the project.

Belmont will be the new downtown Smyrna when finished. The proposal just looks beautiful. It offers lots of green space in proportion to development. This project gets my full support and thumbs up!!! It will bring new life to an old tired mall that was once a great attraction for all of metro Atlanta! Make it happen Cobb County!

Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre is scheduled to open September 15 2007. This has turned out to be a beautiful modern performance building and is going to enhance Cobb’s Platinum Triangle tremendously. The presents of this building should generate a lot of synergy for future projects in this area.

The Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center will cost $145 million to build. It will hold premier opera’s, concerts, Broadway Shows, ballets, education and family shows, corporate meetings and events.

The breath-taking facility will include the 2700 seat John A Williams Theater and a 10,000 sq ft ballroom, 9500 sq ft Courtyard, 3100 sq ft Terrace and 1700 parking spaces.

I drove by the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre a few days ago and all I could say was, Wow!! The Cumberland Mall and Cobb Galleria Area has a very bright future ahead of it.

Federal Aviation Administration director Marion Blakely announced that Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport will receive a $1 million grant that will fund a 2 year study. It seems it’s going to take 2 years to determine if Hartsfield-Jackson International should be expanded or if we should build another airport somewhere else in the metro area to meet future demand. I’m not sure if you remember but Hartsfields–Jackson International’s last runway expansion was the largest cubic feet of earth (dirt) ever moved in the history of the US to build the new runway. They conveyed across 8 lanes of interstate. It was a mechanical marvel. I know somewhere in the US there is a big hole in the ground from where all that dirt came from.

So I’m taking it the federal government needs to figure out if Hartsfield-Jackson International has the space to expand?? It would seem to me the last runway expansion would have a feasibility study of some kind they could use to quickly figure this option out?? But what do I know?? In Ms Blakey’s opinion, Atlanta, Chicago, Las Vegas and San Diego all have airports in the US that will not meet the demand in the very near future. She claims one of the reasons airline demand will be up is because gas prices will hit $4 dollars a gallon. As I read the article in the AJC I started to think out loud. Gas is going to be $4 a gallon and stamps now cost .41 cents. This isn’t a pretty picture Barry.

Marion Blakely I want you to know at $4 a gallon combined with the fact stamps now cost .41 cents in my household airline demand may be down…..and I FLY FOR FREE!! It’s simply because I can’t afford stamps!! We should be spending money trying to figure out why the US Postal Service can not seem to make ends meet. Has anyone been to a post office lately? Have you looked at the mailing date on mail you receive to see how long it took to get too you?? Something else that’s a little scary is the US Postal Service is now going to print a universal stamp with no set amount on them?? That’s like me asking a person to sign a contract without a purchase price. What we need is runway expansions at US Post offices to meet our immediate needs!!

Honestly, now I’m starting to feel that neither gas prices nor airline travel cost will be my problem. Buying stamps to pay my bills will be!!

The Marietta Square Farmers Market is about to open in just a few weeks. Vendors are now being solicited. The market will open May 5th and will take place every Saturday through September 1st. The Marietta Square Farmers Market will be located in the parking lot at the corner of Church and Hansell streets in Marietta.

I’m very excited about having a local farmers market with fresh Georgia grown vegetables, fruits, herbs, flowers, garlic, cheeses, and mushrooms! My hometown of Roanoke Virginia has a farmers market located in the downtown area. I used to work in the middle of Roanokes’ City Market area for several years in a family business. It was a wonderful street on Saturday. It was filled with people that were squeezing, smelling and thumping things they were considering to buy and eat. Most of the farmers would tell you “tats a goodin” then spit tobacco on the ground. I grew up thinking that’s how you bought produce. If they didn’t spit tobacco their produce usually wasn’t worth cow manure. Many of the farmers were characters and very funny people. I liked buying from Mr. Wertz’s stand; he also had pretty daughters that worked on Saturday’s.

My wife Sarah May, loves fresh vegetables. She cooks most of them with fatback her mother hauls across two state lines. She currently goes to a produce stand she found last year in West Cobb. She pulls up front and this gentleman farmer puts her in a golf cart and off they go into the garden to pick what she wants. I think this elder farmer has a crush on my wife as he’s always slipping her an extra tomato all the time.

There’s just something about a farmer that has always interested me. My friends laugh when I tell them I’d love to have a farm. All my farmer friends bend over hysterical when I mention I want a farm. But don’t be surprised if one day I have a stand in the Marietta Square Farmers Market. I couldn’t think of a better life after real estate other than working the land, selling my harvest and slipping pretty girls extra tomatoes.