At 8830 Roswell Road, just south of the river crossing from Roswell, the North River Shopping Center has a Dollar General as its anchor, a mostly empty parking lot and several vacant storefronts, according to Rough Draft Atlanta. In August, crews took down the former bowling alley at the back of the center, as shown in an AJC photo. That building was Stars & Strikes, which closed in July 2020.
The plan for those 13 acres includes about 85 for-sale townhomes. That is the housing the city most wants on Roswell Road, and it gets no tax break. The public money in the deal goes to the 336 apartments next door. If you're comparing parts of Sandy Springs, that arrangement tells you where new owner-occupied homes will come from, how they get paid for, and why the Nov. 3 referendum matters more than its ballot wording suggests.
The townhomes are excluded from the incentives
Woodfield Development, through a subsidiary called North River Apartments Owner, LLC, contracted to buy the center from Insignia Real Estate. Insignia had purchased it in 2025. The Aug. 18 City Council minutes describe the plan as 336 market-rate apartments, 10,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space, and about 85 for-sale townhomes on the northern section, to be built by a separate residential developer.
Here is what the city and its Development Authority approved:
| Incentive | Applies to | Estimated value |
|---|---|---|
| Recreation portion of the impact-fee assessment, waived | Apartments | $1,525,000 |
| Permit-fee waiver | Apartments | $250,000 |
| 10-year property tax abatement, "Bonds for Title" | Apartments only | $2,540,948 net present value at 8%; $3,443,396 undiscounted |
The minutes state that the abatement covers the apartments and "not the new retail space or townhomes." Economic Development Director Chris Burnett confirmed to Rough Draft that the 85 townhomes are not eligible for abatement. The council approved the fee waivers on Aug. 18, and the Development Authority approved the abatement unanimously on Aug. 26.
What the city gets for the money
The incentives aren't paying for apartments in the abstract. They pay Woodfield to build a 0.71-acre public park on the Roswell Road frontage, with public restrooms and 70 public parking spaces, and to deed the park to the city once it's finished. The minutes put the park at about $6.8 million against roughly $4.3 million in discounted incentives. That leaves Woodfield covering more than $1 million of the park itself.
The city also gets a fully cleared site. Burnett described the condition to Rough Draft:
"All tenant leases will need to terminate, and the overall 13-acre site will be totally scrapped and prepped for new construction, including the park project."
Then there's the long-term tax base. Burnett estimated the city's share of taxes from the finished site at about $2 million over 10 years, after subtracting the abatement. He called that "about a tenfold increase" over what the site would produce if nothing were built. He also called it the "first major development project in the North End in decades."
So the apartments carry the subsidy, and the subsidy pays for the park, the parking and the cleared site. The townhomes come with the deal.
Why apartments are the piece that gets paid
The answer is in the North End's commercial numbers. In a presentation reported by Rough Draft in March, KB Advisory Group found that North End rents lag behind the city's other commercial areas, yet vacancies there have consistently run higher. Over 15 years, office vacancies grew, multifamily vacancies held stable and retail vacancies fell. The city's 2021 North End Revitalization Plan stalled during the pandemic, amid high inflation and borrowing costs.
Of the uses on the site, apartments had the steadiest record in the North End, and a 10-year abatement improves the numbers on them directly. Townhomes sell once and are gone from the developer's books, so a multi-year abatement does less for them. The city's staff memo calls the capital stack for a project this size "complex" and says city participation "may be required," especially when it pays for a public amenity like a park.
What the Nov. 3 vote adds
North River didn't need the referendum. A Development Authority abatement requires no legislative change or voter approval. The new authority goes further.
House Bill 1535, sponsored by all four of Sandy Springs' state legislators, put the question on the ballot. It asked whether the city could use the powers in Georgia's Redevelopment Powers Law. Preliminary results showed voters approving it 63% to 37%, according to Rough Draft. The council can now designate redevelopment areas, create tax allocation districts, or TADs, and issue tax allocation bonds.
A TAD doesn't add a new tax. It sets aside the growth in property taxes inside a defined area and spends it on projects there. The vote itself doesn't create a district, raise taxes or approve any project. Each of those needs its own review and approval.
At North River, the city gave up future tax revenue on one building in exchange for a park. A TAD could put the tax growth from a whole stretch of Roswell Road toward roads, parking and amenities. Mayor Rusty Paul's stated aim, as Rough Draft reported in October, is to replace "aging" and "auto-centric" shopping centers with owner-occupied housing.
The same model at City Springs, on a longer timeline
On Oct. 20, the council voted unanimously to begin negotiating the sale of 5.5 city-owned acres south of Mount Vernon Highway for City Springs 2.0. Trammell Crow Company's residential arm, High Street Residential, leads the project, with Third & Urban, DSM Real Estate Partners and Hedgewood Homes assisting. The concept includes apartments over ground-floor retail, a boutique hotel, and a 28-home single-family subdivision next to Heritage Green and the Williams-Payne House. The city is also considering permanently closing Bluestone Road between Mount Vernon Highway and Hilderbrand Drive.
The mix matches North River: apartments, commercial space and a small number of for-sale homes. Burnett told Rough Draft the Development Authority may offer abatements here too. The sequence he laid out:
- Rezoning and sale negotiations this winter
- Developer closings on the property, pending rezoning, next summer
- Site work as early as fall 2027, once permits are issued
- About 24 months of construction on parcels A and B, with a possible ribbon-cutting in the third or fourth quarter of 2029
- The full project complete by 2030
This is the city's second master developer for this phase since the 2022 master plan. The earlier arrangement with Regent Partners and Morris & Fellows ended in 2024.
What a buyer comparing Sandy Springs should take from this
The new for-sale homes the city is working toward come in small batches: 85 townhomes at North River and 28 houses at City Springs. Each batch is part of a larger plan built around apartments. Rough Draft reported that Woodfield expected to acquire North River in October and that the land closing and the abatement would happen at the same time. Construction on the roughly $200 million project could take up to three years. A North End buyer today is buying into the existing housing stock, with these projects arriving over the next several years.
It also tells you which corridors the city is targeting. The North End redevelopment page lists four focus sites from its conceptual plans: Big Lots Center at 7300 Roswell Road, Northridge Shopping Center at 8331–8371 Roswell Road, Loehmann's Plaza at 8610 Roswell Road and North River at 8765–8897 Roswell Road. North River is the first to reach a deal. The other three are the most likely candidates for the next abatement or TAD.
City finances add to the pressure. At his Sept. 15 State of the City address, Paul warned that eliminating taxes on primary residences could cost Sandy Springs about one-third of its revenue, according to Rough Draft. For fiscal 2027, the city planned to keep its millage at 4.731 mills, according to Rough Draft. Because assessments rose, the city's hearing notice puts that rate 0.2635% above the rollback rate, and state law requires the city to advertise it as a tax increase. A city in that position has every reason to grow its commercial and multifamily tax base, and North River shows how it plans to do that.
How these rules apply to a particular property or tax bill is a question for your attorney, tax advisor or lender. This post is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice.
FAQ
Does the referendum raise my property taxes? No, not by itself. Approval does not create a district, raise taxes or approve a project, and any TAD would need separate approval.
Who is building the North River townhomes? The builder hadn't been announced in the August reporting. Woodfield is building the apartments and the park.
Will the North River park belong to the city? Yes. Woodfield builds the park at its own cost and deeds it to the city when it's finished. From then on, the city maintains and manages it.
If you're weighing a home on Roswell Road against one closer to City Springs, the redevelopment timelines belong in the comparison along with the price. David Pruett can go over which addresses sit near the city's focus sites and how each project's schedule lines up with your own. Book an appointment to start.
