Writer: Chris Oliver
Published February 15, 2022
The Daily Citizen
Jantzen Smith, 24, said he and his wife were looking outside Whitfield County to buy their first home when they heard about Patterson Farms, a 74-acre, mixed commercial and residential community under development on Cleveland Highway in Varnell.
“We could go anywhere, but we chose here,” Smith said. “This seemed to offer everything we were looking for, a sense of community, locally-owned shops and retail within walking distance. People are tired of having to get excited about a new McDonald’s or a new Dollar General. They want something unique.”
Mitchell Hollis of Hollis Holdings, one of the developers of Patterson Farms, said they are looking to build something similar to the Cambridge Square community in Ooltewah, Tennessee, or Patrick Square in Clemson, South Carolina.
“But better,” he said.
“They are residential communities like this with a high-end commercial component,” he said. “When I say ‘high-end commercial,’ I’m not necessarily talking about the stores. I’m talking about the quality of construction. If you look at Cambridge Square, that’s about $250 to $275 a square foot to build. They demand a $30 to $35 per square foot rental rate. The problem is that in Whitfield County the highest rental rate is on Walnut Avenue and its about $15 to $18 a square foot.”
Will Patterson Farms just be putting the same old businesses in newer, more expensive buildings?
“This is a $125 million development,” said Hollis. “$90 million of that is the residential. We are not going to do anything that jeopardizes this community. My own brother, Jerome, is living here. I live three miles from here. This is a labor of love. The tenants we are talking to are not dollar stores. These are tenants that this community wants, and most of them are locally owned. We want this to be a destination place for the larger community, not just the people who live here.”
Hollis said Patterson Farms will move ahead with the residential development, a mix of single- and multifamily units, with about 490 total units. But he said to do the commercial part of the development Patterson Farms needs funding from a tax allocation district (TAD).
TADs freeze the value at which a property can be taxed for general revenue. Taxes collected on additional value created by improvements to the property are dedicated to pay for infrastructure, public artwork or other amenities to attract a developer or developers to that area.
Whitfield County voters in March 2021 rejected a measure that would have given county commissioners the power to create tax allocation districts.
Voters in 2014 gave the city councils of Cohutta, Dalton, Tunnel Hill and Varnell the authority to create TADs. County voters rejected TADs that year also.
The Dalton City Council has exercised those powers, creating four. Varnell has created one.
The county commissioners have the power to freeze county taxes in TADs created by the cities and dedicate the additional revenue to amenities in that district.
The county participates in Dalton’s TADs around the Dalton Mall and covering the downtown business district, which were created in 2018.
Varnell officials have asked the county to take part in the TAD around Patterson Farms. In a presentation last week, Kirby Glaze, a TAD expert from the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government, told the county commissioners if they agree to take part in TADs they do not have to commit 100% of their tax revenue but can negotiate a lower amount.
The county commissioners are expected to vote on an agreement to take part in the Patterson Farms TAD when they meet Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Wink Theatre. Kristina Horsley, communications specialist for Whitfield County Schools, said the school board has not yet scheduled a vote on the matter. The Whitfield County Board of Education would have to vote separately to approve that agreement.
Board of Commissioners Chairman Jevin Jensen said the commissioners will vote on whether to enter into an intergovernmental agreement with Varnell for the TAD. The agreement would allow the county to keep some of the new tax revenue generated by the development and not put all of it into the TAD.
“The Patterson Farms development would pay net new property taxes if approved, so this is different from most TADs,” Jensen said.”In the first 10 years, the county would receive over $1 million in new taxes above the current land-only taxes paid today. Basically, covering special tax district services like fire protection. The county schools would receive nearly $1.4 million in new taxes during this time frame because they would only waive taxes on the commercial portions. New residential home taxes, where potential school-age kids reside, would be paid.
“During the 10 years, the TAD funds would go into the development’s roads, sewers and public spaces like parks and walking trails. After approximately 10 years, we estimate this would be paid off and the taxes would return to normal levels.”
Hollis said the TAD funds would be used to offset the cost of infrastructure such as sewer and water.
“We hope that we can bring (retail) rental rates down to a level that will entice some of those tenants we hope to attract,” he said. “Nobody is going to come to Whitfield County and pay $35 a square foot. I hope we can start to change that.”
Hollis said developers outside Whitfield County are watching what happens at Patterson Farms.
“We know there are outside developers looking at coming here,” he said. “We talk to them, and they are thinking ‘If the guys who live there and call that home can’t make this happen, then what can we do?’”
Melanie Hoenig of Greenwood Developers, the other partner in Patterson Farms, said there is only an upside for the county with the TAD.
“If we are able to develop Patterson Farms the way we hope to, we generate tax money for the county,” she said. “If we can’t do that, they are still where they were before we started. The risk is all on us.”
Hollis said developers plan to have a football-field size greenspace in the center of the project for community events or for people to sit or children to play.
“We could probably put another 50 to 60 townhomes there,” he said. “But we aren’t trying to cram as many units here as we can. We are trying to do a quality development and create a small-town atmosphere here.”
Hoenig said they will also focus on the history of the farm. John Patterson, the long-time owner of the farm, was inducted into the Harness Racing Hall of Fame as a driver and trainer, and at Patterson Farms he trained some of the most successful horses in the history of harness racing.
To find out more about Patterson Farms, go to pattersonfarms.com.
