New Development Ready for Construction Across the Street from Suburban Plaza
As a plan to bring a Walmart to DeKalb County’s Suburban Plaza remains mired in legal trouble, a development right across the street is getting ready to start construction.
Fuqua Development is the company creating the mixed-used project, which will be called Decatur Crossing. According to Jeff Fuqua, “We hope that every deal we do is a process like this with the county commission and with the neighbors.”Broadcast Version
Fuqua spent a year negotiating with neighbors and with the citizens group Good Growth DeKalb to hammer out conditions that would win their approval and that of the DeKalb County Commission.
Mary Shellman of Good Growth DeKalb says there were several reasons this process went more smoothly than negotiations over Suburban Plaza, which ended up in court. Primarily, Good Growth DeKalb opposes developer Selig Enterprises’ plan to build a Walmart at Suburban Plaza.
But Shellman says lessons learned during the Suburban Plaza negotiations helped this process. She says teamwork was a factor as well, saying, “We ended up being invited to a neighborhood coalition group that decided to try to work with Fuqua, accept that there was going to be some development there, and try to make it the best that we could.”
Decatur Crossing construction is set to begin this summer on 250 apartments, up to 60 townhomes and a retail space.
It will also include eight-foot wide sidewalks with six feet of green space on each side, and Fuqua has committed to help build some of the missing sidewalks on Scott Boulevard.
Fuqua Development is planning a second phase of Decatur Crossing. It will include more retail space, and Fuqua says he hopes to bring the project before DeKalb County’s zoning board later this year.
As for the proposed Walmart in Suburban Plaza, we contacted Selig Enterprises about a construction start date but did not hear back before airtime.
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