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Developer proposes Prado area face-lift

By CYNTHIA DANIELS, ANNA VARELA
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 09/20/06
The Prado was once a Sandy Springs gem — a place to grab a cold beer and listen to live music. But time has transformed the area around the 33-year-old shopping center on Roswell Road into an eyesore.

The block just north of the Prado greets drivers with a line of stores that include an adult novelty shop, and an abandoned furniture store is the backdrop for dozens of Hispanic day laborers who gather each morning. Nearby apartments appear run-down.

The Florida-based Sembler Co. plans to give the Prado a major face-lift, replacing the expanse of parking spaces along Roswell Road with a stretch of shops designed to create a village feel.

Many city leaders and residents hope it will be the spark that leads to updating the aging neighborhoods around it.

"We're just really looking for this to be the genesis of that area," said Tibby DeJulio, Sandy Springs mayor pro tem. "Over the last 30 years that area has deteriorated ... and we're trying our best to reverse that."

During the 1970s, the shopping center enjoyed its heyday as a nightspot for people on Atlanta's Northside.

Alan Shinall, director of the International School of Skin & Nailcare at the Prado, remembers being in his 20s and driving in from Cherokee County to hang out at the T.G.I. Friday's at the shopping center. "That was the place to be seen or pick up a girlfriend or boyfriend," he said.

Later, an Irish pub called County Cork and a bar called the Office became prime after-hours spots for eating, drinking and meeting people. Today, 5 Seasons Brewery attracts people to the space where the T.G.I. Friday's used to be.

Though generally well maintained, the Prado looks its age and has few retailers.

"I think that whole area is going to go under a drastic revitalization, which is wonderful," said Donna Friedman, president of the homeowners association for Charleston Square, a 200-unit condominium complex that sits on Kingsport Drive. "To have that area be redone and some new stores going in there, to upgrade the area, would be wonderful."

Sembler plans a little more than 323,000 square feet of new retail space and 15,000 square feet of office space in the first phase of its 27-acre development plan, which includes a parking deck designed to be hidden from Roswell Road, according to documents filed with the city. The company's Web site shows a Target, a Publix supermarket and a Home Depot in the development.

Included in Sembler's plans: land that is now home to a 240-unit apartment complex to the south of the Prado called the Retreat on Roswell Road. The complex of one-bedroom apartments reminiscent of ski chalets would be demolished, said Sembler spokesman Angelo Fuster. Residents would have 30 to 60 days to move out after the developer closed on the purchase of the complex, possibly in late September or late October, Fuster said.

Sembler is aiming for a fall 2008 opening date for the first phase of shops and offices. Existing businesses at the Prado, such as 5 Seasons Brewing, will be able to continue operations during construction and could become part of the new development, Fuster said.

The developer is tweaking its site plan, which is scheduled to go before the Sandy Springs City Council on Oct. 3 for a decision.

A later phase of construction could add condos above the restaurants and shops in the existing building, Fuster said. Sembler has not yet decided how big those units might be or how many might go in, he said. If those condos are priced like similar ones in the area, they will continue the shift toward higher-income residents. A townhouse community just south of the Retreat is offering homes in the mid-$300,000s to the high $400,000s.

But northwest of the Prado stands a conglomerate of older apartments — some sprinkled with gang graffiti, others in need of repair. A city apartment sweep in January uncovered vagrants in empty apartments, litter, and rodent and insect infestations.

Eight years ago, in an attempt to help the area shed its blighted image, the county changed the name of the street running by from Copeland Road to Northwood Drive.

Some residents wonder if it helped much.

Last week, Lake Placid Apartments on Kingsport Drive was the site of a killing. Two men were shot and one died after an ongoing feud turned deadly at a children's birthday party.

But Gideon Levy thinks the apartments have potential. He's purchased three complexes — Highland Circle, Lake Placid and Sierra Creek. Together, they account for 315 units and an estimated 1,280 residents. "It just made sense," said Levy, one of the owners of Sabra Property Management. "I think now that Sembler's committed, it's going to expedite everything. If I thought redevelopment [taking] five to 10 years, now I'm talking about five years or even three years."

He envisions upscale townhomes, retail space and offices.

And the city has set aside the area directly north of the Prado for redevelopment with no height restrictions and a residential density of more than 20 units per acre.

But any type of condo conversion, or even mixed-use, could displace the lower-income families now inhabiting the units. Most are Hispanic families, though there are some Bosnian and Brazilian residents as well.

Across from the apartments, Solidarity Mission Village caters to the residents with a church, a preschool, a bank branch and some stores.

Janet Vega Torres, who has worked at the Atlanta Dollar Store inside Solidarity Mission Village for four years, said few of the apartment residents know about the changes that are likely to come to the area, and some of the shop owners also have little information.

Torres, who has lived in Sandy Springs for nine years, said she worries about where families will go if the apartments convert to condos.

She also said she thinks efforts to redevelop the area are tangled up in the larger debate about illegal immigration.

"They don't completely want the Hispanic people [here]," Torres said in Spanish. "This is really bad."

Not so, said DeJulio, who added that the city has talked about requiring that developers looking to work in the area retain some affordable housing.

"We're not trying to push people out," he said. "We're just trying to have them have a better place to live."

For others, the change is welcome.

Zelma Kovacs has owned a two-story townhouse in the Prado North Condominiums since 1989. While Kovacs said she loved her spacious digs near the Solidarity Mission Village, she couldn't deny her eagerness to see redevelopment.

"We can hardly wait," Kovacs said last week while walking her white poodle. "It would be lovely."

But Kovacs doesn't plan to stick around. She said most owners in the 100-unit complex are waiting for someone to buy them out.

"I'll buy somewhere else," she said. "They can build as high as possible, office, condos, townhouses, whatever. We're waiting."