SNELLVILLE – The creation of the Towne Center took a major step forward Monday as the City Council unanimously approved a contract with TSW to design a library/city market building.
"This will be an enormous step in the direction of building our Towne Center dream," City Manager Butch Sanders said.
The contract totals $1,261,306 with the city paying $922,890 and Gwinnett County paying the difference. County officials are expected to approve the contract at a May Board of Commissioners meeting.
The plan calls for relocating the Gwinnett County Public Library currently housed on Lenora Church Road to the Towne Center. Coupled with a City Market based on similar retail space like the historic Atlanta Curb Market, the building and parking deck will become the anchor of Snellville's Towne Center. City officials said the Towne Center will create a livable, walkable downtown with commercial, recreational and residential space. Plans call for a floor above the Library/City Market which could be used as classroom space for a surrounding college and other beneficial civic uses.
The vote capped a year-long process during which TSW was chosen over eight other applicants for the task of designing the proposed three-story building and creating construction documents ready for bidding.
City officials are targeting mid-2019 to break ground on the highly anticipated project once design plans and a new intergovernmental agreement with Gwinnett County for construction is negotiated.