Tucker-Northlake CID: Building the Future

L. A. DISON

Since 2013, the Tucker-Northlake Community Improvement District (CID) has worked diligently to improve the community by bettering conditions for existing businesses and attracting new growth. The nine years of its acclaimed success is well-earned due to the hard work of the CID, but is also the result of many years of commitment from local individuals and businesses who believed in their community. Tucker was founded in 1892 as an unincorporated community in CID Executive Director Matthew Lee in front of Northlake Mall’s redesigned staircase to the second level, DeKalb County. The success of its first 120 years was largely due to now serving as seating for a residents’ ‘can do’ entrepreneurial spirit, where permission wasn’t first floor staging area. required nor needed to get things done. In 2011, long-time Tucker resident and businesswoman Honey Van De Kreke embodied that mindset, and noted the progress of both the Cumberland CID in Cobb County and the Lilburn CID in Gwinnett. Each had successfully leveraged private-public partnerships to build prosperous business districts, and Van De Kreke thought a similar organization would push Tucker businesses to the next level.

Van De Kreke began to survey fellow business owners to gauge interest in creating a CID for Tucker. The idea was at first a hard sell; CIDs were not well-publicized outside of their specific area of influence, and there in the competing cityhood debates, the existence of the CID were still only a handful operating in Georgia. But Van offered validation of the proposed city’s leadership base. A De Kreke was a well-respected Tucker businesswoman handful of opponents to Tucker incorporating claimed that with an extensive list of business and government Tucker was behind the times and not organized, but the CID contacts, and when she enlisted the aid of lobbyist was proof that this was not the case. and public affairs strategist (and Tucker resident) Rosenthal stepped down as president in 2017. Matthew Lee Ann Rosenthal, the two began to pitch the CID was hired as the organization’s first executive director after idea to anyone who would listen. The two women an extensive career in healthcare technology. Like many of helped found the Tucker Formation Committee, and those involved with the CID, Lee has a deep family legacy Rosenthal authored the legislative strategic plan that in Tucker and metro Atlanta. His fourth great-grandfather created the Tucker CID in 2013. Less than one year represented DeKalb County in the state legislature for after the formation of the Tucker CID, a majority of several years. His maternal grandfather was a developer who the commercial property owners in the Northlake created neighborhoods along Lavista Road and Briarcliff district joined the effort, which was then re-named Road. A great uncle was a principal of Tucker Elementary the Tucker-Northlake CID. with a strong record of community service.

Rosenthal was appointed by the CID board as its first “I’m an eighth-generation Georgian, and my family has president. Under her leadership, the CID guided the been in and around DeKalb for nearly two hundred years,” development of a strategic Master Plan for the area, Tucker-Northlake CID coverage map. said Lee proudly. “I feel like I’m not only accountable to the which outlined a vision for transportation infrastructure and land use; provided current community, but that I owe something to those who have passed on.” recommendations for improved multi-modal transportation and connectivity One of the most high-profile accomplishments within the CID is the dramatic rebetween business and residential areas; and identified potential quality of life and invention of Northlake Mall. When the fifty-year-old mall was sold in 2016 to ATR beautification projects. Corinth Partners in Dallas, Texas, the CID board quickly formed a close relationship

Tucker became a city in 2015. While the Tucker-Northlake CID remained neutral with the new owners. ATR Corinth wanted to mirror their work with One Hundred

Oaks Mall in Nashville, Tennessee, where they had transitioned a dying mall into a mixed-use center for healthcare services and retail, and the CID was eager to help.

“Sears and JC Penney closing their Northlake locations left huge vacancies on the property,” said Lee. “Emory Healthcare was a natural fit as the first step in transitioning Northlake into the next fifty years. An office space with the amenities of midtown Atlanta, without midtown prices or midtown traffic.”

ATR Corinth worked on the deal with Emory itself, but the CID continued to elevate the area. It talked regularly with the mall owners, area business owners, and the community about upcoming projects and opportunities.

“Those talking points about projects already underway, and those coming, gave everyone confidence that this was a good investment.”

Emory leased 240,000 square feet of the former mall space and is renovating it to eventually house over 1,600 employees for administrative offices, and consolidating several locations to the Northlake campus. Renovation is underway in other sections of the building. The property will retain some of the existing retail, including anchor story Macy’s, as well as new and exciting dining opportunities. The CDC Federal Credit Union opened a branch at Northlake as the first outparcel on the property.

Beyond the mall project, and through various partnerships, the CID continues to play a role in leveraging funding for many important but less visible improvements, including: • Filling sidewalk gaps on Lavista Road and Hugh Howell Road • Maintaining the landscaping and flower beds on Main Street in Downtown

Tucker • Funding the landscaping at Lavista Road and I-285 and the medians along

Northlake Parkway and Lavista Road • Monthly street sweeping of forty curb miles in the CID • Supplementing public safety with additional police officers and other security measures • Sponsoring the Friends of Tucker Path to advocate for trail connections throughout Tucker • Working with the City of Tucker to ensure local laws maintain an environment that is favorable to good businesses.

The CID’s wish-list for the next ten years includes completion of the trail project from Downtown Tucker to Northlake; an express lane exit at Northlake Parkway and I-285; improved traffic flow through the district; a stronger identity for Northlake as a transit-oriented development; better access for trucks into the Montreal Industrial area; a more attractive Lawrenceville Highway corridor; and an unparalleled alley network in Downtown Tucker. Lee is optimistic about the CID’s next ten years and beyond, but knows realizing opportunities depends on not just the CID but the efforts of the entire community - businesses and residents.

“Act as if the community depended on you to do your part, because it does,” advises Lee. “The CID can’t do everything, nor can the city. The culture of doing and of community service has to be in the hearts and minds of the majority of the people or the whole system breaks down. The reward is in a job well done.”

Redevelopment of alleyways off Main Street as outdoor pedestrian gathering places is part of the CID's Livable Centers Initiative for downtown Tucker. (Concept art courtesy of Tucker-Northlake CID)

The Tucker-Northlake CID currently includes 315 commercial properties representing more than $535 million in assessed value. The CID is governed by a board of directors representing commercial property owners in the area; the current board members are Brad Spratte (Chick-fil-A Northlake Festival and Tucker Station), Chip Cofer (Cofer Brothers, Inc.), Charles DeWitt (Tandem Bank), Honey Van De Kreke (MarketMakers, Inc.), Barry Schrenk (Taggert’s Driving School), Bob Espy (Espy Real Estate and Development Company), and Betty Willis (Emory University). For more information, visit tuckernorthlakecid.com, or follow the Tucker-Northlake CID on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.