Real Estate Report Sponsored section ►►PAGE 22
Don’t lose HOPE
Scholarship changes start with class of 2015 ►►PAGE 8
Best in show!
Appen wins 19 awards ►►PAGE 27
Enjoy the night life
Roswell, Alpharetta host evening events ►►PAGE 26
April 30, 2014 | northfulton.com | 73,500 circulation Revue & News, Johns Creek Herald, Milton Herald & Forsyth Herald combined | 50¢ | Volume 9, No. 18
New traffic system could save headaches, time Links lights from Sandy Springs to Milton By JONATHAN COPSEY jonathan@northfulton.com NORTH FULTON, Ga. – Anyone who drives in North Fulton knows traffic is one of the largest problems the area has. Now Roswell, Alpharetta and Sandy Springs have banded together to try and fix this. For the entirety of Ga. 9/ Alpharetta Highway from Abernathy Road in Sandy Springs up to Windward Parkway in Alpharetta, each traffic light is joined to the others via a large, interactive system that is designed to make traffic flow better. Called “Adaptive Traffic Control,” the system joins 38 traffic cameras and more than 60 traffic lights that can all be
JONATHAN COPSEY/STAFF
Avalon, North Fulton’s $600 million project, is slated to open its first phase Oct. 30. Inset: Mark Toro, Avalon developer.
controlled from a control room in Roswell. From this control room, staffers can view live feeds of intersections and control signal timing in emergencies. More importantly, during the day-to-day grind, the software the system uses automatically adjusts signal length based on how traffic is at any given moment. If there is a backup at Mansell Road eastbound, the system may give that light more priority than Ga. 9 northbound until traffic lightens up. “This is the most complicated, yet largely invisible, project we have ever undertaken,” said Roswell Director of Transportation Steve Acenbrak.
See TRAFFIC, Page 16
Avalon 97% leased with 189 days to go Topping out party means NAP passing baton to new tenants By HATCHER HURD & JONATHAN COPSEY ALPHARETTA, Ga. – Avalon had a party last week to celebrate another milestone – the “topping out” of the property. That is the setting of the last beam in the last building of the retail quarter of what will eventually be North American Properties’ $600 million mixed-use residential, commercial and office playland of North Fulton. But North American Properties Managing Partner Mark Toro and his associates had much more to celebrate than the end of principal construction (although finishings will take another six months). Toro has a whopping 93
percent of the property signed to leases with another 4 percent of the property in the last stages of negotiations for leases. “In effect, we are 100 percent leased with six months to go. That is practically unheard of,” Toro said. In all, there will be 500,000 square feet of retail on 87 acres. There has been so much interest in the residential components of the property – both single-family and luxury rental units (Avalon doesn’t use the word “apartment”) – that they won’t discuss prices yet. Michael Davis, service development manager for NAP, said there are 1,400 firm letters of interest for the 101 Monte Hewitt homes on Avalon property. Sotheby’s International Realty, the leasing agency, received more than
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See AVALON, Page 31
JONATHAN COPSEY/STAFF
Roswell Traffic Engineer Muhammed Rauf said North Fulton drivers should notice a difference in traffic with the new traffic light control system.