live & thrive : housing
LIVE & THRIVE : housing
Tech City of the South, Alpharetta, Dusting Off 2020
By: Geoffrey Smith
gsmith@assurancemortgage.com 770-674-1433
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LIVE & THRIVE
or three months in early 2020, the much-envied suburban metropolis that is Alpharetta was turned into a 20-squaremile museum of how to develop an upscale small city. As the cordons are removed, and people are allowed to again play with all the city has to offer, Alpharetta is back to performing as the pre-eminent place to live, work and play in the Metro Atlanta area.
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Alpharetta is unique in that it has one of the most diverse makeup of retail, office and residential uses anywhere in the Metro area. It bet big in the early 1990’s on turning Windward Parkway and Old Milton Parkway into office campus highways. And then it won big. It became a retail powerhouse in the mid 1990’s with the addition of North Point Mall. And then doubled-down with the addition of the nationally renowned Avalon, whose success has spread a full mile down Old Milton Parkway and into what is now a thriving downtown district surrounding its city hall. Surrounding all of this is a strong residential base of high-end swimand-tennis, and golf communities. And mixed in-between are highend condos, intown houses and apartments. Because of the strong diversity of uses, Alpharetta is a city with a commercial tax base so strong that it approved one of the most aggressive residential tax exemptions last year, and still has enough money to
develop infrastructure throughout the city. The new infrastructure being built includes amenities that other cities only have the ability to talk about and plan for and include multiple parking decks in its downtown district, extensive sidewalk systems throughout the city and constant upgrades to its recreation and parks systems. These improvements will continue to further improve the quality of life for the residents who live there, the employees who work in the offices there, and the tourists who come to visit there. One such project underway is Alpharetta’s multi-use trail system called the Alpha Loop. This consists of a 3-mile inner loop and a 5-mile outer loop that will link Downtown Alpharetta, Avalon, and the Northwinds area located at Haynes Bridge Road and GA400. It will piggy-back off of the Big Creek Parkway – a multi-use trail that runs from its southern boarder into Roswell, along Big Creek to its northern boarder in Forsyth County.
ALPHARETTA GUIDEBOOK
9/17/20 10:33 AM
