A ragtag collection of deteriorating structures bounded by a long-defunct road that once crossed the

Chattahoochee River now occupy the area overlooking the downtown area.

But city officials see a day when the area could be redeveloped, turned into a variety of uses, including a new City Hall and a much-desired road connecting downtown to Lights Ferry Road and then a main West Hall artery, McEver Road.

That's for another day, when the economy improves and more development takes hold in the city.

For now, just months after city officials bought nearly 7 acres off Gainesville and Main streets, the city is thinking in more modest, short-term ways - such as tearing down the 75-year-old Mooney Manufacturing plant.

Mayor Mike Miller sees the development tied to plans moving forward on the neighboring Old Town Flowery Branch development, a proposed retail and residential area between Church Street and Railroad Avenue downtown and involving the extension of Pine Street from Church to Railroad.

"We kind of hold the cornerstone. Once (that property) is developed, we are in a great position to dictate the rest of the growth," Miller said.

City Manager Bill Andrew and Public Works Director Johnny Thomas recently conducted a tour of the property, which features the manufacturing buildings, a rusting water tower that served the property, metal storage sheds and the brushy remnants of Old Iron Bridge Road.

Mooney Manufacturing thrived for decades on the corner of Gainesville and Main streets. The plant made solid wood furniture, and during World War II, made wooden boxes for the military, said Karen Collins, whose father started the plant in 1936, in an earlier interview.

"I want to say they were ammunition boxes, but I'm not sure," she said.

The business, employing as many as 28 during its heyday, closed about 10 years ago.

A small brick outbuilding on Main Street that served as the plant's offices is the only structure that "has any intrinsic value," Andrew said. "But the interior of it is absolutely shot. It had water leaks for a number of years and the ceiling has collapsed."

Several of the Mooney buildings were strung together piecemeal as the company expanded. Narrow stairways separate floors, a freight elevator is still intact and, while the building is mostly vacant, tools, pieces of wood and small machinery are scattered throughout.

Recently, Thomas said, a Reebok location scout visited the property in searching for a run-down industrial site to serve as a TV commercial involving the Atlanta Falcons.

The building shows signs of definite wear. In one location, Thomas identified an area where part of the ceiling and roof had recently collapsed. Shards of broken glass from a window, as well as beer and soda cans, are strewn across floors.

Property across the street from the plant, or the "upper property," as it has been dubbed, "had been in the city's comprehensive land-use plan for a number of years, actually, as a municipal complex site," Andrew said.

The price on the entire property was out of the city's range, however, until the economy took a nosedive.

"It became an offer we couldn't pass up," Andrew said.
In October, the City Council voted to buy the 7 acres for $262,500.

In an interview around that time, Collins said the city got a "great deal" on the property.

"Before the recession started, we were offered $700,000 and our accountant told us we could get more, so we held onto it," said Collins, who, at one time, worked for three years in payroll at the plant.

The city's purchase was financed by its special purpose local option sales tax and a couple of other sources, including general fund reserves.

"Short term, I hope we can find a way to demo all of that (Mooney site) and turn it into a temporary green space or park-type area until we can finance the upper portion and get a municipal complex," Miller said.

The complex, he envisions, would house city offices, along with a new police station and municipal courtroom.
"We have essentially outgrown our courtroom, which is the council chambers, and the police department building is bursting at the seams," Miller said.

"With that, we would hope to open up the current City Hall and administrative buildings (on Main Street) and ... maybe sell them off and help fund the (new complex)."

Until then, the property will maintain its perch above the downtown.

"Our family is in the phase of ‘we're not going to have this anymore,'" Collins said.