Clayton County has paid the team behind a speculative high-rise project more than a half-million dollars for design work for a future county-owned small business development center, a disclosure that appeared to catch leaders by surprise at a commission meeting this week.
The expense came to light Tuesday during a briefing about The Roman, an ambitious $800 million mixed-use development where the business “incubator” will be built.
The $4 million incubator is a small part of a proposal that includes futuristic-looking office, hotel and condo towers and a 7,000-plus-seat amphitheater.
Questions have been raised about the feasibility of the The Roman project, which has not received local zoning and permits and has yet to be submitted for regional or state approvals.
Clayton Chief Operating Officer Detrick Stanford told commissioners that $559,000 in taxpayer funds had already been spent on an architectural and engineering design for the nascent incubator. Commissioner Felicia Franklin said the payment is surprising when the developer has yet to submit plans for local review or for a state infrastructure assessment known as a Development of Regional Impact or DRI.
“I’m a little confused on how we get to paying out for (architectural and engineering) designs when they are still in the feasibility study,” Franklin said. “So we paid half-a-million for the concept, but it hasn’t gone through the proper zoning (and) DRI feasibility?”
The question reflected multiple concerns commissioners expressed Tuesday about the project, one of the largest luxury proposals pitched in metro Atlanta in recent years and in a county often overlooked for such large-scale projects.
Courtesy Roman United, Yamasaki and Bad Consult
Courtesy Roman United, Yamasaki and Bad Consult
Set for 26 acres at an abandoned Ingles grocery store, the proposal would include four high-rises of at least 25 stories, the tallest buildings south of I-20. Developer Jacques Roman, CEO of Roman United, said the amphitheater and a 27-story condo building would be built within a year, a timeline experts said would be hard to meet given its current lack of approvals.
Roman United signed a long-term land lease late last year for the Ingles property, which is owned by a county agency.
An Atlanta Journal-Constitution story published Sept. 2 revealed Roman and his wife suffered an eviction from their Dunwoody apartment in 2019. A portfolio of projects once listed on the company’s website and since removed included projects that did not exist and featured stock images of a German mall, a UNESCO world heritage site and Harvard University.
Roman United and its partners have said the project, except for the incubator, will be “privately funded.” The partners have said they have foreign investors but did not disclose them or other funding sources to the AJC.
On Tuesday, Roman and design partner Robert Szantner, of Detroit-based Yamasaki Architects, outlined plans for commissioners including discussions they said they have had with leaders about traffic and the proposal’s environmental impact.
The partners said they met with leaders of the county school system, which also is building an arena in a building the district bought at nearby SouthLake Mall.
The developers said they plan to kick off The Roman with the business incubator.
“The incubator is our priority,” Szantner said.
COO Stanford has said that the county’s agreement to fund the incubator includes a claw back provision that allows Clayton to be repaid any financial investment if the project is not completed.
Hussein Bakri, the founder of Dubai-based Bad Consult and another partner on the project, previously told the AJC the 17,000-square-foot incubator could be 3-D printed in whole or in part, a big undertaking for a relatively new form of construction.
The design fees paid to date, meanwhile, equal about 14% of the incubator’s budget. Design fees are typically about 7% of a project’s budget, industry experts say.
Stanford said he did not know if the county was paying more than normal because there is not a flat rate to use as a guide. He said design work costs fluctuate on the company doing the work and how they calculate architectural and engineering expenditures.
But despite their presentation, Commissioner Gail Hambrick appeared confused.
“Is this signed off and going forward?” she asked.
Franklin said she had hoped for more information on a timeline for meeting DRI guidelines to make it a reality.
The developers said they will file for DRI review in about three weeks.
“What we need to see is a specific timeline, has it gone through the state processes, through the departments to be vetted to make sure a project like this will fit this topography,” Franklin said.
Larry Vincent, executive director of Invest Clayton, the county’s development authority and owner of the Ingles land, said the developers are facing challenges new to the community because of what they are proposing.
“We’ve never built anything like this in Clayton County,” he said.
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