The Woodstock City Council has approved a letter of intent with Woodstock City Partners, a wholly-owned affiliate of Morris & Fellows, outlining the roles and responsibilities of each party in regard to developing the City Center project at the former site of Morgan’s Ace Hardware. Morris & Fellows has been deeply involved in the revitalization of downtown Woodstock since developing its Main Street district in 2004. In 2015 following a competitive request for qualifications, the firm was selected as the city’s private development partner for a development project on city-owned property along Towne Lake Parkway and Arnold Mill Roads.

“Our council has taken an exciting first step towards completing a defining project for the center of our city,” said Woodstock Mayor Michael Caldwell. “This step represents a handshake enabling Woodstock City Partners to begin investing in design and engineering for the project, while the city starts to move forward with our public information process. Woodstock is committed to investing in transformative public infrastructure on this site which will yield significant improvement in both traffic and parking issues, while also incentivizing brand new private investment both at this site and throughout the city.”

The City of Woodstock will fund public infrastructure improvements including approximately 650 spaces in a public parking deck, modifications to the existing road and pedestrian network and a much-needed meeting and event facility.  It is anticipated that public infrastructure improvements will be funded through SPLOST and other revenue sources without having any impact on the City’s General Operating Fund.

Cheri Morris, president of Morris and Fellows and Woodstock City Partners, has assembled a development team that will be tasked with delivering an $80 million private development focusing on additional retail and restaurant opportunities, a boutique hotel with meeting space and professional office space. Woodstock City Partners will purchase the private parcels for $1.5 million.

"It has been such a pleasure to watch our original development catalyze the extraordinary vitality of downtown Woodstock's entertainment district. Well beyond the borders of our property, the whole downtown is now thriving with shopping, dining, theater, music, art, parks and trails and wonderful walkable neighborhoods. That is always our goal and our hope when we develop in central city districts. Woodstock City Center is the natural progression for the city as we add office space and a hotel to our retail and restaurant mix, and improve the capacity of the public infrastructure,” said Morris.

The city anticipates that the public information for this project will begin this spring and the project could open in mid-2024.