12/2/18 Misc Info: contact info updated to harris2018@aol.com
In blogosphere terms this is a relatively old blog and there will be no new updates unless something 'newsworthy' about this issue comes up.
The material is good historically so if you are interested in the topic it is all awaiting your review.
The material is good historically so if you are interested in the topic it is all awaiting your review.
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KENNESAW MARKETPLACE WORK CONTINUES
Fall opening for many stores is expected.
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7/2/16
KENNESAW MARKETPLACE -
Estimated Completion: Fall 2016
Located in the City of Kennesaw at the crossroads of US Highway 41 and Barrett Parkway.
The mixed-use development will anchored by a Whole Foods Market, Academy Sports, restaurants, banks and other specialty retailers.
Kennesaw Marketplace Tenants:
Whole Foods
Academy Sports
AT&T
Aspen Dental
Burger 21
Cactus Carwash
Freddy's Steakburgers
Hobby Lobby
Luxury Nails
Mattress Firm
Medalyn Salon and Med Spa
Menchies
Newks Cafe
Panda Express
Petco
PIE 5
PNC Bank
Quick Trip
Relax the Back
Smoothie King
Sports Clips
Starbucks
SunTrust Bank
U-Break I-Fix
Volcano Steak and Sushi
Which Wich
Zoe's Kitchen
6/8/16
5/31/16
5/4/16
4/6/16
Things continue to progress:
4/6/16
KENNESAW MARKETPLACE WORK CONTINUES
Wednesday, April 6, 2016
7/2/16
KENNESAW MARKETPLACE -
Located in the City of Kennesaw at the crossroads of US Highway 41 and Barrett Parkway.
The mixed-use development will anchored by a Whole Foods Market, Academy Sports, restaurants, banks and other specialty retailers.
Kennesaw Marketplace Tenants:
Whole Foods
Academy Sports
AT&T
Aspen Dental
Burger 21
Cactus Carwash
Freddy's Steakburgers
Hobby Lobby
Luxury Nails
Mattress Firm
Medalyn Salon and Med Spa
Menchies
Newks Cafe
Panda Express
Petco
PIE 5
PNC Bank
Quick Trip
Relax the Back
Smoothie King
Sports Clips
Starbucks
SunTrust Bank
U-Break I-Fix
Volcano Steak and Sushi
Which Wich
Zoe's Kitchen
Academy Sports
AT&T
Aspen Dental
Burger 21
Cactus Carwash
Freddy's Steakburgers
Hobby Lobby
Luxury Nails
Mattress Firm
Medalyn Salon and Med Spa
Menchies
Newks Cafe
Panda Express
Petco
PIE 5
PNC Bank
Quick Trip
Relax the Back
Smoothie King
Sports Clips
Starbucks
SunTrust Bank
U-Break I-Fix
Volcano Steak and Sushi
Which Wich
Zoe's Kitchen
Wednesday, April 6, 2016
Construction advances at Kennesaw Marketplace
3/28/16
Question for Carla Jackson:
Are the remaining trailers and the property current in their taxes to Cobb County.
My Answer: NO, 8 are delinquent from last year, it remains to be seen how many will be unpaid for the year 2016.
2015 Taxes on 8 park owned trailers remains unpaid:
CASTLE LAKE HOMES CORP 2015 M18800081 370 JOHNSTON PKWY KENNESAW 30152 Unpaid
CASTLE LAKE HOMES CORP 2015 M19304789 139 BAKER ST KENNESAW 30152 Unpaid
CASTLE LAKE HOMES CORP 2015 M19304789 139 BAKER ST KENNESAW 30152 Unpaid
CASTLE LAKE HOMES CORP 2015 M19990096 39 LANKFORD WAY KENNESAW 30152 Unpaid
CASTLE LAKE HOMES CORP 2015 M18805738 52 JONES ST KENNESAW 30152 Unpaid
CASTLE LAKE HOMES CORP 2015 M18806050 23 C JOHNSTON PKWY KENNESAW 30152 Unpaid
CASTLE LAKE HOMES CORP 2015 M18803077 14 B JOHNSTON PKWY KENNESAW 30152 unpaid
CASTLE LAKE HOMES CORP 2015 M18806050 23 C JOHNSTON PKWY KENNESAW 30152 Unpaid
CASTLE LAKE HOMES CORP 2015 M18803077 14 B JOHNSTON PKWY KENNESAW 30152 unpaid
CASTLE LAKE HOMES CORP 2015 M19606050 101 JOHNSTON PKWY KENNESAW 30152 Unpaid
CASTLELAKE MHP 2015 M18802749 192 A HOOD PKWY KENNESAW 30152 Unpaid
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2/29/16
Original Condition of the Castle Lake MHP property:
What it looks like today:
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2/12/16
Still winding its way through the Cobb County Superior Court is a suit by 12 former residents of the Castle Lake Mobile Home Park, who are asking for their civil action to be considered as a 'Class Action'.
Probably Whole Foods will be open and doing business before this matter is finally put to rest and we find out if the Canadian slumlords have to pay for their actions and dealings with the 1,500 residents of that park.
Another filing was entered Feb 4th by the Carroll Law Firm representing the 12 initial claimants.
What is the Castle Lake suit all about?
It is NOT about how the tenants were treated when the Ergas family sold those 52 acres to Fuqua Development, it is an entirely different cause of action.
The lawsuit is premised on the egregious conduct of Defendants, who preyed on low-income tenants in Defendants' mobile home park by illegally taking on the role of law enforcement and ticketing and fining them - sometimes in amounts exceeding their rent - and by secretly charging those tenants for water and sewer usage well in excess of the amounts actually paid by Defendants to Cobb County.
Plaintiffs' Class Action complaint sets forth two classes of plaintiffs:
(1) All current and former tenants of Castle Lake Mobile Home Park who paid any Defendant for purported water and/or sewer charges; and
(2) All current and former tenants of Castle Lake Mobile Home Park who paid any Defendant for any fine or penalty.
Collectively, Defendants are the owners, operators and managers of a 300 plus lot mobile home park in Kennesaw, known as Castle Lake mobile Home Park (CLMHP). All of the 300 plus lots in CLMHP are rented to tenants on a month-to-month basis pursuant to written lease agreements.
Georgia law prohibits fines and penalties in contracts and such penalties are legally void and unenforceable. Nevertheless, Defendants repeatedly ticketed, fined and penalized tenants for alleged trivial violations and for alleged violations not listed in the tenants' lease agreements, such as parking in a neighbor's driveway with that neighbor's permission, hosting a birthday party or playing music.
Defendants threatened eviction, either expressly or implicitly, to all tenants who did not promptly pay the illegal fines, thereby extorting payment from each tenant. Illegal fines sometimes exceeding the amount of the tenant's monthly rent payment.
Note: The next Court date has been set for July 22, 2016
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2/9/16
You wouldn't recognize the site of the 53 acre Castle Lake Mobile Home Park these days. Fuqua Development, LLC is still moving dirt but soon the first buildings will be going up.
There are another 23 acres being used as the MHP and eventually these will also end up as retail or townhome usage.
To bad there are no shots from a drone!
Keep scrolling down for more photos.
12/25/15
NEXT COURT DATE
For the few people who are keeping up with this potential 'class action' civil suit against the Castle Lake MHP, the next Court date has been set for July 22, 2016.
2 1/2 hours are reserved and the Order of Special Setting is below FYI.
Should this actually go to trial it may well be another 2 years, or about six months AFTER the new 450,000 sq ft retail center is opened for business.
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12/12/15
CASTLE LAKE - ROUND 2 IN SUPERIOR COURT
Regular readers of my various blog sites(*) are well aware of the Castle Lake Mobile Home Park and how 2/3rds of that downmarket trailer park was abruptly rezoned and brought into the City of Kennesaw, all in a remarkable time of 28 days from proposal to approval and also how badly the low income tenants were treated by Jeff Fuqua ("Atlanta's Most Controversial Developer") and the Vancouver, BC slum lords of the Ergas family.
The trailers on those 52 acres are now gone, the retiries, low income residents and the large Hispanic population are all scattered to other parks, counties and even other states.
The land clearing for the new 450,000 sq ft retail and residential buildings is well advanced. You can have lunch at the IHOP and watch the blasting and earth moving while you have lunch, which was quite likely prepared and served by former CLMHP residents as several cooks and waitresses once resided at the park and probably still work at IHOP.
What you may not be aware of, is that 10 months ago a dozen former residents and trailer owners of this park banded together and filed what is hoped to be a 'class action' suit against 3 of the corprate entities of the Canadian slumlord* for various misdeeds over the years in the administration of the MHP(**).
The matter is alive and well, slowly winding its way through the convoluted Georgia legal system.
It is likely to be in the courts for several more years as these cases are seldom short and sweet.
The latest activity is just last month but going back one month more you find an interesting letter from the Plaintiff's law firm (see attached) and to show you just how litigious this is I will briefly quote from the Carroll Law Firm's 10/15/15 letter to Judge Kell. Keep in mind that delay is usual for Defendants in such proceedings, they benefit from drawing out such suits and 'papering' Plaintiffs as you will see is being done here:
"Dear Judge Kell:
I represent the Plaintiffs in the above-referenced class action lawsuit, which was filed on February 13, 2015. Plaintiffs would like to request that the discovery conference pertaining to class certification issues, as contemplated by OCGA 9-11-23(f)(1), be scheduled so that a scheduling order regarding class certification discovery and motions can be established.
Plaintiffs would also like to address at the conference voluminous discovery requests that Defendants have recently served on the class Plaintiffs. Collectively, Defendants have served Plaintiffs with 2,448 Requests for Admission, 756 Interrogatories, and 216 Requests for Production. Because such discovery relates to the merits of the case rather than class certification, and because the class certification discovery conference has not yet occurred,
Plaintiffs have objected to such discovery as premature".
While the millions of dollars of profit for the sale of those 52 acres is probably long out of reach of the Plaintiffs, there remains another 23 acres of the CLMHP and while it remains in the County the land is extremely valuable with the major retail and townhome development just across Noonday Creek from the shabby park.
Even with the delays by the CL lawyers, any future class judgment against the park owners is likely to result in substantial payouts to all those who have lived under egregious conditions mandated by the park owners(***).
Eventually the case will be tried for those 12 original plaintiffs and perhaps, if the class is certified, there will be hundreds or thousands who might benefit from this civil action.
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** 1) Castle Lake Homes Corp, 2) Masal Partners Ltd LP and 3) Amak Partners LP. These are the offshoots of the Vancouver, B.C., Canada firm called 'The Ergas Group', owned by a wealthy Jewish family of property investors in Vancouver.
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*** What is the Castle Lake suit all about?
This class action lawsuit is premised on the egregious conduct of Defendants, who preyed on low-income tenants in Defendants' mobile home park by illegally taking on the role of law enforcement and ticketing and fining them - sometimes in amounts exceeding their rent - and by secretly charging those tenants for water and sewer usage well in excess of the amounts actually paid by Defendants to Cobb County.
Plaintiffs' Class Action complaint sets forth two classes of plaintiffs:
(1) All current and former tenants of Castle Lake Mobile Home Park who paid any Defendant for purported water and/or sewer charges; and
(2) All current and former tenants of Castle Lake Mobile Home Park who paid any Defendant for any fine or penalty.
Collectively, Defendants are the owners, operators and managers of a 300 plus lot mobile home park in Kennesaw, known as Castle Lake mobile Home Park (CLMHP). All of the 300 plus lots in CLMHP are rented to tenants on a month-to-month basis pursuant to written lease agreements.
Georgia law prohibits fines and penalties in contracts and such penalties are legally void and unenforceable. Nevertheless, Defendants repeatedly ticketed, fined and penalized tenants for alleged trivial violations and for alleged violations not listed in the tenants' lease agreements, such as parking in a neighbor's driveway with that neighbor's permission, hosting a birthday party or playing music.
Defendants threatened eviction, either expressly or implicitly, to all tenants who did not promptly pay the illegal fines, thereby extorting payment from each tenant. Illegal fines sometimes exceeding the amount of the tenant's monthly rent payment.
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10/29/15
ATTENTION KENNESAW CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS
(and those wanting to be City Council Members)
Since this Castle Lake Mobile Home Park was rezoned and annexed to the City of Kennesaw (all in 28 days start to finish) some consumer oriented people have been telling City officials that the 1,500 new City residents at CLMHP were getting totally screwed by Fuqua and the slumlords at the Canadian Ergas Group.
All these residents got from the City was hot air and BS.
Now that these people are scattered to other parks, other cities/counties they are still being taken advantage of by this group of liars and thieves.
Below is an incoming from a former resident of the CLMHP which shows just what a rip off operation the Yes Communities are and how those former CL residents continue to be taken advantage of.
The Kennesaw City administration early on burried their collective heads in the sand and ignored those 1,500 'new' Kennesaw citizens while Fuqua and the Ergas clan totally screwed them.
Shame on all of you for allowing this to happen!
"Hello Mr. Harris
This is Cindy Bickford my family was part of the castle lake displacement. Now that Fuqua has the land and everyone moved out, the company they partnered up with Yes Communities, are kicking us one more time.
We moved to hidden falls in Acworth with the deal that being it was a Yes Community, we would get $2500.00 and lot rent of $99.00 for 2 months. Now we are here Yes is saying the $2500.00 was used for fixing the home from the move. For instance the siding had to be married back together from the move.
Feels like a bait and switch to me. No one will talk to me about this. Please forward this to anyone that can help. Thank you
Sent from my iPhone"
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(see: http://castlelakekennesaw.blogspot.com/ and http://castlelakemhp.blogspot.com/. Keep up with my Facebook posts at: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008587503434)
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10/26/15
The 52 acre Castle Lake site at Barrett Pky and Cobb Pky is being prepared for the retail development and continues to be cleared.
The trailers are long gone and the ground is being leveled so the construction can begin. Some sections require explosives to break up the rocky areas.
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