Woodstock, GA Signs Letter of Intent with Morris & Fellows

The Woodstock City Council has approved a letter of intent with Woodstock City Partners, a wholly-owned affiliate of Morris & Fellows, outlining the roles and responsibilities of each party in regard to developing the City Center project at the former site of Morgan’s Ace Hardware. Morris & Fellows has been deeply involved in the revitalization of downtown Woodstock since developing its Main Street district in 2004. In 2015 following a competitive request for qualifications, the Sandy Springs-based firm was selected as the city’s private development partner for a development project on city-owned property along Towne Lake Parkway and Arnold Mill Roads.

“Our council has taken an exciting first step towards completing a defining project for the center of our city,” said Woodstock Mayor Michael Caldwell. “This step represents a handshake enabling Woodstock City Partners to begin investing in design and engineering for the project, while the city starts to move forward with our public information process. Woodstock is committed to investing in transformative public infrastructure on this site which will yield significant improvement in both traffic and parking issues, while also incentivizing brand new private investment both at this site and throughout the city.”

The City of Woodstock will fund public infrastructure improvements including approximately 650 spaces in a public parking deck, modifications to the existing road and pedestrian network and a much-needed meeting and event facility. It is anticipated that public infrastructure improvements will be funded through SPLOST and other revenue sources without having any impact on the City’s General Operating Fund.

Cheri Morris, president of Morris and Fellows and Woodstock City Partners, has assembled a development team that will be tasked with delivering an $80 million private development focusing on additional retail and restaurant opportunities, a boutique hotel with meeting space and professional office space. Woodstock City Partners will purchase the private parcels for $1.5 million.

"It has been such a pleasure to watch our original development catalyze the extraordinary vitality of downtown Woodstock's entertainment district. Well beyond the borders of our property, the whole downtown is now thriving with shopping, dining, theater, music, art, parks and trails and wonderful walkable neighborhoods. That is always our goal and our hope when we develop in central city districts. Woodstock City Center is the natural progression for the city as we add office space and a hotel to our retail and restaurant mix, and improve the capacity of the public infrastructure,” said Morris.

The city anticipates that the public information for this project will begin this spring and the project could open in mid-2024.

About the City of Woodstock

Established over a century ago as a railroad and manufacturing town, today Woodstock is Cherokee County’s fastest-growing city. Thanks to the foresight of city leadership and involved citizens, over the past 15 years Woodstock has been repurposing its downtown district into a thriving, walkable mixed-use community, with new housing, exciting restaurants, offices, boutique shopping and plenty of pocket parks and greenspaces. Great care was given to preserve the historic character of the city by renovating and repurposing historic structures and designing new buildings that seamlessly blend into the overall architecture of the downtown area. Easily accessible via Interstate 575 and Highway 92, Woodstock has grown 70 percent over the past decade, with exciting new plans for a City Center now underway in the heart of downtown Woodstock. www.woodstockga.gov

About Morris & Fellows

Morris & Fellows, founded in 1982, develops upscale, retail-based mixed-use communities structured as public/private partnerships with their host cities. The Sandy Springs-based company is known for its development of Woodstock Downtown and Alpharetta City Center, both of which catalyzed transformational revitalizations of the cities’ historic downtowns. Morris & Fellows’ development projects have been awarded the “Development of Excellence” by the Urban Land Institute and the Atlanta Regional Commission, received the CNU “International Charter Award” for Best Neighborhood Scale District, and were named “America’s Best Smart Growth Community” by the National Homebuilders Association and “America’s Neighborhood” by Better Homes and Gardens magazine. www.morrisandfellows.com