Six months ago, Clayton County officials rubbed elbows and dined on salmon sliders and red wine at a party celebrating the groundbreaking of “The Roman,” a massive $800 million high-rise project on the site of a dilapidated grocery store in Lake City.
The project’s newcomer developer, Jacques Roman, made an ambitious promise not only to seed development of this small city nine miles south of the world’s busiest airport, but to build the first phase of the project — including a 7,500-seat amphitheater and 27-story luxury condo tower — within a year.
But fast forward to today, and the rusting former Ingles grocery store remains. The only thing that’s changed is the rented backhoe present during the project’s unveiling in August is nowhere to be seen.
Lake City officials say Roman has yet to apply for key permits needed to demolish the building, much less for the clearances to build the flashy dream he promised. And county leaders said they are considering alternative sites for a taxpayer-funded $4 million business incubator that was to be a key part of the mixed-use project because of a lack of progress.
Lake City Mayor Ronald Dodson, one of the few elected officials to express doubts about The Roman when it was announced last year, said he’s close to giving up hope. He told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he would like to buy the 26-acre property even though officials with the county’s development arm — Invest Clayton — assure him the project is just delayed.
“We’re just sitting here with our hands tied with really the largest piece of property in the city that could have some use, but we’re not able to do anything with it,” Dodson said.
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Clayton leaders, meanwhile, said they are limited on how much they can speak about the project because of legal discussions with Roman, including whether the county is seeking to get back $559,000 it paid Roman so far for architectural and engineering design for the incubator.
“It’s definitely going slower than we hoped for it to go,” said Clayton County Commission Chairman Jeff Turner. “The incubator is a priority for us. If we get some different alternatives for that location, of course we’ll explore everything.”
Neither Invest Clayton Executive Director Larry Vincent nor officials with Roman United responded to repeated phone calls or emailed questions from the AJC for this story.
The about-face over the project contrasts with the enthusiasm many Clayton leaders exhibited when the project was announced in August. Many hoped at the time that The Roman could be a defining project for a south metro community that’s often overlooked by developers.
“Because we’ve never done this before, we know that it’s kind of scary for some people,” Vincent said at the August groundbreaking ceremony. “But I think we’re going to do the right thing here that’s going to change the trajectory of our county.”
Credit: Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@ajc.com
Credit: Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@ajc.com
‘Absolutely nothing has happened’
Last August, Roman United proposed building two condo buildings, an office tower, a hotel, an amphitheater and the incubator on the property along Jonesboro Road. Each of the four high-rises would reach at least 25 stories, the tallest south of I-20.
The futuristic development would rise on land the developer would lease from Invest Clayton for almost nothing. But questions were soon raised about The Roman and its namesake developer.
Credit: Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@ajc.com
Credit: Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@ajc.com
An AJC investigation found Jacques Roman had limited experience as a developer and his company website’s portfolio page included misattributed project descriptions and pictures. The portfolio, which has since been removed, included projects that did not exist and featured stock images of a German mall, a UNESCO world heritage site and Harvard University.
The newspaper also found records showing that Roman was evicted from his Dunwoody apartment in 2019 for failing to pay more than $2,700 in rent and utilities.
Lake City, a town of roughly 3,000 people, would need to rezone the land and approve land disturbance permits before the empty grocery store can be demolished.
Leaders from Roman United and Vincent told the Clayton County Commission in September that they were in the process of getting the required permits for the project.
“For the past six months, absolutely nothing has happened up there,” Dodson said.
A development of regional impact (DRI) assessment, a state infrastructure report for large projects, also has not been submitted.
Clayton County is an unlikely location for high-rise condos, offices and a luxury hotel, commercial real estate experts told the AJC.
Nearly 17% of Clayton residents live below the poverty line, and the county has one of the region’s highest unemployment rates. Despite being the home of around 300,000 residents, Clayton does not have common national retailers like Target. The lack of such amenities is a long-standing complaint in this majority-minority county that for years has courted residential and retail development common in Atlanta’s northern suburbs.
Roman and partners have said they have international investors and the project would be “privately funded,” but the partners did not provide specifics about financing.
But rising interest rates have also put a chill in the U.S. on loans for speculative development.
Carol Yancey, a Clayton County resident, said she thought the project was folly from the beginning. There are not enough Clayton residents who could afford such luxuries to make it work nor was the site the most suitable for such a high-end development, she said.
“I couldn’t see it coming to fruition,” she said. “The concept, the location, none of it made sense to me.”
A claw back clause
Roman United signed a 50-year land lease in 2021 with Invest Clayton to have the right to develop the Ingles property.
All it costs is $10 per year in rent, and the developer paid the first 10 years in advance. Vincent previously told the AJC that Roman United has not asked for any incentives.
Invest Clayton can void the lease if certain conditions are not met.
Vincent and Roman did not respond to questions about the status of the lease.
As part of the project, Roman agreed to build a 17,000-square-foot small business incubator, funded with $4 million in sales tax money. The funds will reimburse Roman for construction costs, Clayton COO Detrick Stanford said in August. Other than the funds for the incubator, no other public dollars have been committed to the overall project, officials have said.
He added that if the project fizzles out, taxpayer funds will be protected due to a claw back provision that would force Roman United to repay funds if construction does not begin by 2024.
Dodson said he’s tired of looking at an eyesore along his city’s main drag. He said residents often ask, “What’s going to happen?”
“And I can’t answer,” he said.
The story so far
In August, developer Jacques Roman and Clayton County officials broke ground on a futuristic looking $800 million office, hotel, condo, amphitheater and small-business incubator project in Lake City. An AJC investigation at the time raised questions about the project’s timeline and feasibility. In recent weeks, county officials have considered alternatives for the incubator and seemed to have soured on the project’s prospects given its lack of progress.
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