Civil Municipal Magazine Aug 2023

202 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 4, ISSUE 8 on its second floor. The first floor will feature a restaurant and market space. Burst of development Bender continues that Snellville City Hall was among the first buildings put up in this area 18 years ago. Situated near this downtown development core, the city hall will be in the heart of this walkable area. Adding to the redevelopment efforts, Bender notes that within the last decade, a police department was built near the new city hall as well. “Now we have a lot of new construction going on,” the mayor informs. “And in the Grove development (a public/private joint venture of 50,000 square feet of retail, restaurant, office, and entertainment space), there are also two other mixed-use buildings. They are restaurant/retail on the first floors, and the second and third floors are two- story townhomes. And the townhomes will be rented as part of the apartment complex.” area in Snellville, and I’m very happy to say that this is now under construction. We have a $100 million private/public partnership going with private developers, MidCity Real Estate Partners and CASTO, and a lot of City investment in creating a little, walkable downtown hub in Snellville,” he continued. Ground was broken on the construction of this downtown endeavor nearly two years ago. It’s all part of the City of Snellville’s downtown master plan, as Bender explained, and this includes more than 280 apartments now built and occupied. The City’s participation was a 750-space parking deck, used by the apartment- dwellers. There’s free public parking. “Part of the downtown project is that our county library system is building a brand-new library in our downtown area,” Bender informs of a coming two-story, 44,000-square-foot facility. In addition, the City is constructing the Market Building, a structure of some 20,000 square feet and ample event space