McDonough presented a preliminary proposal to city council members at the council’s winter retreat Wednesday at Heritage Sandy Springs.
The estimated cost for the city center’s full first phase is expected to be $84.5 million plus the cost of building a civic center.
The city has already allocated $25.6 million, but still needs $58.5 million.
“This is the better part of a decade’s worth of savings put away,” said McDonough. “This is essentially money we have in [the] CIP [capital improvement plan].
Some of the projects included in phase one are land acquisition, a city center parking study, road work at Mount Vernon Highway and the Blue Stone Road extension, infrastructure work, work on Sandy Springs Circle and construction of a playground at Heritage Green.
The city has allocated $15.6 million for land acquisition, but still needs $10 million. Another big expense is structured parking, which the city has not allocated any money for and needs $12.5 million to fund 500 spaces at $25,000 each.
The city also needs $11.3 million for city center infrastructure and the green.
As of now, the city is looking to build a 95,000 square-foot civic center or city hall, which will include a 400-seat performing arts hall/council chamber plus adjacent space.
The building will be at least four stories.
Council members decided not to have the municipal court in the city hall facility. The court could remain at its current location at city hall on Roswell Road.
In terms of where the city center will be located, McDonough described Blue Stone Road as being the spine and Mount Vernon as the shoulders. The city owns the old Target site on John Ferry Road, and it could serve as the new city hall/civic center location.
The borders of the first phase will run north of Hammond Drive to Johnson Ferry.
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