Business People Exhort Commissioners to Move Forward

From restauranteurs to retailers, business people delivered an adamant message to the Athens-Clarke County Commission at their Tuesday night work session. Move ahead as quickly as possible on the expansion of the Classic Center, or risk losing millions of dollars and hundreds of jobs for the community.

The Commission is expected next Tuesday to approve one of a handful of proposed designs for the $20 million expansion of the Classic Center, which will be paid for with SPLOST funds.

An April 5 vote will mean the huge expansion would be completed by February 2013, in time for Athens' busy spring convention season. Delaying the vote by doing further study or soliciting even more public input would push the project back further, resulting in the loss of revenue-generating conventions seeking larger facilities, speakers said.

The larger trade associations and organizations, such as the 3,000-person North Georgia Methodist Conference that has come to Athens for years, schedule their conventions years ahead. Right now, said Chuck Jones, director of the Athens Convention and Visitors Bureau, they are bidding for events in Spring 2013.

"Tourism is economic development," Jones said, adding that, excluding the Methodists, conventions have a $10.8 million impact on Athens. "I don't think we can afford to give up another spring."

Those speaking at Tuesday's work session favored the Option 1(a) design, which calls for closing Hancock Avenue at Thomas Street and swapping  land with a private hotel developer. Commissioner Mike Hamby wanted more details about the land swap before approving Option 1(a) , but Athens-Clarke County staff members didn't have those on hand.

"I want the expansion to proceed in a timely way," said Jaamy Zarnegar, co-owner of the Last Resort Grill on Clayton Street. "If the Classic Center does better, we'll all do better."