Duluth officials urging construction that lasts

The new city hall has been completed a little more than one year. In that time, Chris McGahee believes the building has made a statement. And the Duluth Economic Development Manager said he's going to use the building to urge other developers to strive for the same level of construction.

"What you start to see are disposable buildings," he said, "meaning it lasts less than 50 years. I'm trying to get people to focus on legacy buildings. What you want is to have the city you occupy be the same city that your children and their children will live in generation after generation. This city hall is a great example. We need to build buildings that are timeless instead of buildings that are stuck in time."

McGahee said the city hall "makes a statement about the government."

"It says to any developer that they have to match that standard," he said.

McGahee said the building now occupied by Street Smarts, a privately held planning, design and engineering consulting firm, and Mathias Corporation, a privately held construction firm, is a perfect example of what he wants Duluth to strive for.

"The best compliment they have received at that building is that they did a great restoration job on the building," he said. "That's the kind of compliments you want to receive."

McGahee and the city planning staff is taking this idea and targeting the Buford Highway corridor where the city is the process of creating a Tax Allocation District (TAD).

"This allows developers to overcome challenges," he said, "and there are a lot of challenges on Buford Highway. For example, sewer costs could be prohibitive and might just stop a project."

Duluth Director of Planning Clifford Cross said site preparation is a "significant cost" to developers.

"It's hard to market a lot requiring a great deal of site preparation," he said.

McGahee said the TAD would allow taxes to be deferred for 20 to 25 years "so the development creates revenue for the TAD."

"The difference in taxes will be able to be poured into projects for the TAD so the TAD does the heavy lifting," he said.

Duluth staff is currently working with the county to draw out the boundaries of the TAD which McGahee said would include the downtown area.

"We will work with developers and existing owners to hopefully end up with legacy buildings," he said.

McGahee said he hopes to have the plan submitted to the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners by December.

Redeveloping areas of Duluth and creating character areas is important to the city since there is not a great deal of vacant land remaining, McGahee said.

"Duluth is mostly built out," he said. "That's where the redevelopment concept comes in.

"What do we do so someone doesn't have to come in here in 50 years and redevelop and build.

"The additional cost of a legacy building is paid off year after year. That's because they build it right the first time."
- www.gwinnettherald.com

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