EMERSON — State Rep. Earl Ehrhart (R-Powder Springs) confirmed that he and other partners in LakePoint Sports Development, LLC, closed Thursday morning on 1,400 acres in Emerson — a city of 1,470 residents in Bartow County, less than three miles from the Cobb County line — for an undisclosed amount to build a mega sports park that investors originally eyed for Powder Springs but were turned down by the Cobb Board of Commissioners.

Ehrhart said the project is expected to result in 20,000 jobs over the next seven years, with 9,000 permanent, non-construction jobs being created through the project over the next two years. Ehrhart said he estimates the economic impact of the project on Bartow and Emerson to “easily” be $1 billion a year, with 4 million unique visitors each year and $20 million in annual taxes going into the Bartow coffers.

To put that in perspective, the Cobb County Convention and Visitors Bureau announced in June that Cobb’s tourism industry in all of Cobb combined during 2010 resulted in a $1.73 billion impact to the county — $730 million more than Ehrhart’s estimates for the sports park alone.

Ehrhart said the LakePoint complex at the corner of Interstate 75 and U.S. Highway 41 is the biggest site project in Georgia at 15 million cubic yards of dirt — 2 million cubic yards more than the Kia assembly plant in West Point.

Construction is expected to begin on Monday, Ehrhart said, and the first pitch is expected for May 2013.

“Cobb is my home and it’s who I represent, so of course I’m disappointed that it’s not being built in Cobb, when it could have,” Ehrhart said. “Cobb just went through a tax increase, and $20 million would have done a lot for the county. But Cobb made it clear that the tenants weren’t welcome there. They would have been induced to come under a certain arrangement, then they’d move them out the door. It would have been a hard sell.”

In April 2010, Cobb commissioners were in flux: Former Chairman Sam Olens left his post to run for the state’s attorney general seat, and current Chairman Tim Lee left his post as commissioner to run for the top seat. That left Commissioners Bob Ott, Helen Goreham and Woody Thompson on the board, along with interim Commissioner Thea Powell, who was appointed on April 28. During that April 28 meeting, all four voted against issuing bonds for Ehrhart’s group, which was then going under the name Dream Parks Management, LLC.

At that time, Ehrhart was joined by Skip Chesshire, the retired administrator of Cobb Superior Court; Mark Johnson, former house counsel to developer John Williams; Ned Yost, a former coach of the Atlanta Braves under Bobby Cox; and Tony Carlson, an east Cobb architect as partners in Dream Parks. Their plan was to buy 372 acres in Powder Springs to build 16 baseball fields, 12 lacrosse and soccer fields and retail space for hotels, restaurants, shops and, potentially, four corporate headquarters.

The biggest draw for the complex was the possibility that Perfect Game USA, a scouting service for amateur baseball that runs tournaments and showcases throughout the nation, would move its headquarters from its current location in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to the Cobb complex along with most, if not all, of its tournaments. Perfect Game has since committed to that same deal at LakePoint, Ehrhart said, along with the North Atlanta Soccer Association, LB3 Lacrosse and The Miracle League.

During the time of the Cobb proposal, there was confusion as to which county authority would issue $72 million in bonds for the complex. Ehrhart said last April that those would be backed by the full faith and credit of the county, though he said Thursday the county was only expected to issue a tax-exempt bond rate. Ehrhart said the Emerson project is completely funded by investor money and Bartow has not issued any bond rates for the complex, though he said they are welcome to.

Bond payments would have been spread out over 30 years at $5.1 million year, to be paid by revenue generated by the Powder Springs complex, Ehrhart said at the time. The county would have owned the land and the facilities on the land, and therefore would not generate any property tax, though Ehrhart estimated it would generate a great deal of hotel/motel tax.

But Commissioner Bob Ott said at the time, as well as on Thursday, that he and other commissioners turned down the proposal because they felt there was not enough information or details on the plans for them to feel comfortable with giving the appropriate Authority the OK to vote on the bonds.

Still, Ott said he would have liked to have seen the complex built in Cobb.

“Back then, there was a lot of uncertainty. We weren’t given a whole lot of details, and the biggest concern was using public money, whereas now it’s all private. Of course we would love to have it in Cobb, but we had limited information, and we were told there was no possible way it could be done with private money, and we had a lot of questions at the time that weren’t answered. It’s a great project, and it’s unfortunate that it couldn’t have been built here,” Ott said.

Lee, who brought the proposal forward during one of his last meetings before dropping his seat to run for chairman, said he believed then and still believes now that the county should have approved the item.

“I was advocating moving it forward prior to leaving,” Lee said. “I thought it was a good project that would benefit Cobb significantly, with its educational and youth programs, and would be shot in the arm for the South Cobb area. I clearly wish it had been built in Cobb County in some scope. But I’m happy for the folks in Emerson and hopefully, it will have a trickle down effect to the northern part of the county.”

Emerson City Manager Kevin McBurnett said the city approved a zoning amendment for the complex to be built in March.

“We’re ecstatic,” McBurnett said. “We’re really looking forward to it. This is going to create tourism, jobs, and bring loads of dollars into our county, city and community. This is going to be an economic engine here, without a doubt, and has a lot of great sponsors behind it. And on the sports end, it’s really great because it’s helping our kids.”

Ehrhart said the complex will be much bigger in size and scope than the proposed Cobb complex, as it will include 17 different sports and 10 hotel companies and more than 80 restaurants and other retail outlets are “very, very interested in the site.”

Ehrhart said three of the original Dream Parks partners remain in the LakePoint partnership — himself, Yost and Carlson. That group, along with Chief Marketing Officer Judy Sparks, now goes under the name of Sport Parks. For the Emerson project, they added Cox and Gonzalez through Yost’s relationship with the two baseball leaders, along with Consortium Sports, made up of Watkins Associated Developers, Tri Capita, Site Services and another foundation equity partner that did not wish to be named. Ehrhart would not disclose how much the group has invested in the project, what the final closing cost was or the percentages of ownership for each partner; though he said each partner has invested financially in the project.