The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Cricket stadium on deck for Gwinnett Place?
Development plans abound for the area around the property.
Philadelphia-based investor is looking to build a 20,000-seat cricket stadium at mall.
An investor who wants to build a 20,000-seat cricket stadium at Gwinnett Place Mall says he has a contract to purchase most of the once-proud retail center.
If it’s pulled off, the project would be an unconventional way to spur long-desired redevelopment there. But there’s a long way to go before cricket, or anything else, comes to Gwinnett Place.
Philadelphia-based investor Jignesh “Jay” Pandya confirmed to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he and his partners in CricRealty Co. Atlanta LLC – who want to start an eight-team cricket league in cities across the United States – are under contract to acquire all but the mall’s remaining anchor stores for an undisclosed sum.
“We believe that we have a product which is very good, the second most-watched sport in the world,” Pandya said.
The mall property would be purchased from Moonbeam Capital Partners, which acquired Gwinnett Place in 2013.
Reached by phone Tuesday, Moonbeam CEO Steve Maksin said before hanging up: “I have no comment. You’re going to have to read between the lines.”
Pandya, whose team announced in December plans for a similar project near Dallas, Texas, said Moonbeam would no longer be involved with Gwinnett Place if the sale goes through. He conceded that Maksin – described in a previous press release as “a key member of The CricRealty Company” – could have bigger-picture involvement with the hoped-for cricket league, which was first pitched in 2016.
Cricket is a popular sport in parts of Europe and southern Asia. Gwinnett has the largest Indian population in Georgia. The county and the city of Johns Creek have cricket fields in their parks master plans, though there is no time frame for when they might be built.
Pandya said his vision is not just for a stadium but a “complete full blown, mixed-use development” at Gwinnett Place, with retail, commercial and residential components. He said he wants to break ground in 2019.
Getting there would likely be
of the vote that, one way or another, will shape the future of Gwinnett and the entire metro Atlanta region. And with an opposition effort that currently consists primarily of a few Facebook groups, the effectiveness of the pro-transit turnout efforts could very well determine the result.
Issue placed on standalone ballot
The referendum’s passage would make the suburban county of nearly 1 million people a member of MARTA and commit residents and visitors to paying a new 1 percent sales tax until 2057. The tax revenues would cover the cost of new transit projects like a rail extension from Doraville to Norcross, bus rapid transit and greatly expanded local bus service.
While Gwinnett has changed demographically and politically since its last vote on MARTA in 1990 — Abrams herself took the long-conservative county by more than 14 points in November — the issue being placed on a standalone ballot has put pro-transit forces in a pinch. There are still plenty of older, more con- servative voters in Gwin- nett, and they’re the ones who most reliably vote in special elections — and the ones most likely to vote no.
“What’s very clear to me,” Fred Hicks, the New Georgia Project Action Fund’s campaign manager, “is that this whole thing hinges on who comes out to vote.”
Hicks said his group has had paid canvassers like San- chez wandering Gwinnett since before the Super Bowl. It hopes to hit 100,000 doors by election day.
They’re not alone in the push.
There’s also the “Yes to MARTA” committee, which is being led by members of the Georgia Sierra Club. They’ve been canvassing and hosting events to try and touch base with 60,000 folks they’ve identified as environmentally-conscious voters.
The Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials has joined the effort recently too, with the goal of calling and visiting as many Latino voters as possible. They are sending mailers to all 33,000 or so Latino households in the Georgia go lending support Gwinnett’s ocratic itself The “all county. and in” Democratic Party resources recently to joining on aid arm the is local referendum, of some canvassing pledged and the Party efforts. of other Dem- the to of efforts including by New led Georgia. texting by other efforts groups, led
nett” There’s committee, also the spearheaded “Go Gwin- by Rotarians. local business That group people has kept and its strategy close to the vest but canvassing and phone-bank- ing and social media ads are all on the table.
“I want to stress, we’re trying to do this in an intentional way,” Paige Havens, a Go Gwinnett spokeswoman, said. “We are working a great deal on voter identification and making sure that those people who understand and appreciate the true benefit of transit are out for the vote.”
There is an education com- ponent to all of the advocacy groups’ efforts. It’s clear that many even if Gwinnett they’re aware residents, of the referendum, don’t know much about the county’s pending contract with MARTA or that the plan involves a lot more than just a four- or five- mile passenger rail extension from Doraville to Norcross. But the goal is not really to flip those opposed to tran- sit. It’s to get those already in favor to the polls. “The thing is, we know that transportation here in Gwinnett is popular,” said Bianca Keaton, the new chair of the Gwinnett County Dem- ocratic Party. “It would have passed if it were scheduled during a regular election, when they knew people would come out.”
Detractors cite the expense
As it turns out, the woman in the white Kia, the one in the driveway in Lawrenceville, is well aware of the referendum. She tells Sanchez, the 33-year-old canvasser from the New Georgia Proj- ect, that she plans to vote yes. And that she’ll tell her fam- ily members to do so, too.
“I think it would help when it comes to more jobs and people being able to get around,” Kimberly Coleman, 47, says. “And maybe reduce the congestion of traffic too.”
Like Coleman, advocates of Gwinnett’s transit push believe expanded service would help relieve congestion, improve job opportunities for residents, drive economic development and help reduce the negative impact of the 500,000 or so new residents expected to move to Gwinnett in the coming decades.
Some detractors say that the $5.5 billion plan that would guide new transit projects if the referendum passes is simultaneously too expensive and lacking in coverage for the entire county. Others simply don’t want to pay a new tax or are opposed to public transportation more generally.
Count Sanchez among the former group. After speaking with Coleman, she happily gets back into her own car and drives to her next destination — a row of townhomes a few streets over.
She has slightly better luck than she did with Coleman’s neighbors. She gets a couple folks in a row, then a bonus woman unloading groceries at a house that’s not even on her list.
“It’s really nice when people’s faces light up at information they didn’t know that is valuable to them, and that they can act on,” Sanchez said. “And they can actually feel like they can do something.”