SMYRNA — In his State of the City address on Thursday, Smyrna Mayor Max Bacon applauded the city’s decision to purchase the aging 726-unit Hickory Lake Apartment complex on Windy Hill Road by South Cobb Drive last December.

The Smyrna Downtown Redevelopment Authority issued a $15 million bond to purchase the 48-acre property for $9.5 million, using $4.1 million on demolition expenses and the rest for related costs.

The city is marketing the property for sale.

“We’re pretty much open to anything,” Bacon said. “We’d like somebody to come and buy the whole 48 acres.”

The city has received interest in the property from industrial, manufacturing and hospital companies, he said.

“It’s a political issue, I guess, because this is an election year and a lot of people are saying we didn’t need to buy it,” Bacon said. “I’m going to tell you, we had one shot to take control of that 50 acres. There’s sometimes when you have an out-of-town owner and then you’ve got multiple owners — it’s tough to even get them to court to make them clean up.”

Bacon acknowledged the city had taken a chance in buying the property.

“The economy is not as good today as it was six years ago, but you know, you look back to 20 years ago, and we took a big gamble then. Had we not taken a gamble to do what we did in the downtown, Johnson’s Shoe Shop would have been our No. 1 business and a close second would have been St. Jude’s Thrift Store,” Bacon said, referring to the city’s celebrated redeveloped downtown.

And with the city’s purchase of the complex, Moody’s and S&P upgraded Smyrna’s rating to AA plus, Bacon said.

“Hickory Lake, when it was in its heyday, was the nicest apartment complex in Cobb County,” Bacon said. “Apartment complexes, when they first open up, they’re luxury apartments, they’re great places for people to live, singles and people with families, but then over the years, they just turn into absolutely not a great place for people to live.”

Following his speech, Cobb Superior Court Judge Adele Grubbs said she began her life in the U.S. at Hickory Lake Apartments in the 1960s.

“That was the first place I lived,” Grubbs said. “I rode the Greyhound Bus from Belmont Hills into Atlanta and back.”

Even so, Grubbs said Smyrna made the right call.

“Hickory Lake needed to come down,” she said. “I saw so much crime coming out of that complex.”

Balancing the budget

Bacon said the city’s FY12 budget is balanced at $70.9 million, $4 million higher than last year’s.

“It up a little because of the bond issue and a couple of grants, and we’re building a new fire station (in south Smyrna),” Bacon said.

The city was able to avoid a property tax increase, layoffs, furloughs, using reserves, or closing facilities, he said.

“Without a doubt in my mind, we provide the best services for our citizens anywhere,” Bacon said.

Some revenue streams have had to be adjusted since last year:

n Residential property taxes are expected to decline by 4.4 percent from the 2010 digest, providing the city with $720,000 less than last year.

n Franchise taxes are budgeted at $3.35 million, an increase of $250,000 over FY2011.

n Business licenses increased by $190,000.

n New fees and existing fees increased by $611,860. A fuel surcharge as well as rate increase to residential and commercial sanitation accounts for $342,970 of the $611,860.

Slowing development

Smyrna is growing. The 2010 U.S. Census revealed a 25 percent increase in Smyrna residents, from 40,999 in 2000 to 51,271 in 2010.

But the recession has placed a number of developments on hold.

Jack Halpern’s Belmont Hills at the corner of Atlanta and Windy Hill roads hasn’t seen any progress in the last few years, although the 1950s-era Belmont Hills Shopping Center has been bulldozed.

The proposed Jonquil Village at the corner of Atlanta and Spring roads, which had intended to be anchored by a 40,000-square-foot Publix grocery store, with 120,000 square feet of office space, 30,000 square feet of Class A office space, 300 condos and senior housing, and 1,300 deck and surface parking spaces, hasn’t moved either. Bacon said the development went into foreclosure and its fate is unknown.

“Thirty one years being in office, I’ve seen it go up and down, up and down, but I’ve never seen it just stop,” Bacon said. “Stop to the point where hardly anything is being developed in the last couple years.”

But there are encouraging signs with some movement among builders.

“They’re not the $600,000 homes that were projected, but they are homes that folks can afford,” he said. “Those that are successful — Ashton Woods, John Willis Homes, some of these folks — they’ve found the niche, and it’s about $320,000/$340,000. They’ll advertise them at $240,000, but that doesn’t include any doors or commodes anything like that.”

Smyrna will also get to spend $33 million on transportation infrastructure received with the countywide passage of SPLOST.

Tri-Land Properties Inc. and Kroger are working on a new center that will reach 230,000 square feet and include eight out-parcel buildings, replacing the old Kroger located across the intersection off South Cobb Drive and Concord Road. The new Kroger will partially replace the existing 153,000-square-foot Crossings Shopping Center and include a gas station, florist and bakery. The project is expected to open this fall, he said.

GLOCK, Inc. is expanding at its Highlands Parkway campus in Smyrna and intends to add 100 jobs.

And Jay Wallace, owner of the Smyrna gun shop Adventure Outdoors, this fall is opening a $5 million, 70,000-square-foot sporting goods store in the former Bruno’s Grocery building at 2500 South Cobb Drive, complete with a 17-lane shooting range with computer-operated targets, a café and a mezzanine that will seat more than 600 people.

Happy to be mayor

Bacon was elected mayor in 1985, after his father, Arthur, the previous mayor, died while in office.

“One thing I want to tell folks is that I never take it for granted that I’m the mayor,” he said.

“Growing up here and living here — my mother still lives in the house that my Daddy built in 1946 — I never take this for granted. If I left tomorrow I’d be pretty doggone happy, but I want four more years.”

If he has any regrets, it’s that more people don’t become involved with their city.

“I wish more people would get involved,” Bacon said. “We have folks that do come to the council meeting, but it’s probably the same ones that just complain about everything. You can’t make them happy. You can’t make them happy on Kenny’s key lime pie, you can’t make them happy on nothing.”

Thursday’s event was jointly hosted by The Cobb Chamber of Commerce and Smyrna Business Association at the Smyrna Community Center. Among those in attendance were Bacon’s mother, Dot Bacon, and his sister, Linda Kenney, principal of King Springs Elementary School.

Former Cobb school board member Curt Johnston applauded Bacon’s speech.

“I was actually pleasantly surprised that the city is doing as well as it is, considering what you hear from the state and what you hear from other cities and the federal government,” Johnston said. “I think it’s great that Smyrna’s been able to balance their budget without having to have a tax increase. Very impressive.”