Developer gets another extension for building a Kroger grocery store at Capital City Stadium site

The Atlanta-based developer of a long-delayed retail and residential project at the abandoned Capital City Stadium got a seventh extension Tuesday from City Hall.

As the project approaches five years since it was announced, developer Bright-Meyers must put up $250,000 to help the city build a walkway along Rocky Branch from Assembly Street to Olympia Park, a city official said.

The 1,000-foot to 1,200-foot pedestrian and bicycle path is expected to cost between $400,000 and $500,000, said Krista Hampton, the city’s director of planning and development.

The $250,000 was the condition City Council imposed on Bright-Meyers to get five more months to close on the project, Hampton said. The extension allows the developer until Nov. 1. But Bright-Meyers executive Matt Sasser has not told the city when construction would begin, Hampton said.

The $250,000 is added to the original $1 million purchase price of the six-acre stadium property that is part of a 22-acre complex that will be anchored by a 113,500-square-foot Kroger grocery store.

Tuesday’s decision does not change Bright-Meyers’ contractual obligation to pay the city $279,000 if the project does not materialize, Hampton said.

Separately, the developer has pledged to pay for much of the cost of opening three flooding choke points on Rocky Branch at the property and extending into the Olympia neighborhood, Hampton said. The city will pay $500,000 of that cost, she said.

Bright-Meyers already had to put up $200,000 to get its fifth extension in 2014, and that was on top of the initial $29,000 in earnest money. Altogether, the developer now is on the hook to the city for $279,000 if it fails to develop the project.

When city council approved the fifth extension to May 30, 2015, members were growing antsy about the series of delays. Council insisted on a series of benchmarks that were to have required preliminary environmental reports.

Further, council said two years ago, Bright-Meyers was to have provided computer models of flood control plans, was to have applied for a federal permit to build in a wetland and a completed flood study.

This story was originally published May 4, 2016 at 2:18 PM with the headline "Developer gets another extension for building a Kroger grocery store at Capital City Stadium site."