Gainesville officials are looking for ways to market the city as a competitive location for businesses to build.

City staff found an advantage when they began comparing Gainesville's building permit fees to other cities in February. As several metro Atlanta cities begin to offer economic incentives for job creation, Gainesville City Council members hope to market the advantages in the next month.

"I read an article about Alpharetta making some concessions in their fee charges to attract business," said council member Bob Hamrick. "I thought it would be appropriate for us to look at our fees to see if we're in line and, at the same time, see if we could lower ours to be competitive."

Planning Director Rusty Ligon drafted a comparison of the two cities' inspection fees, permit fees and impact fees for a 15,000- square-foot building. Total fees in Gainesville added up to $5,241, falling below Alpharetta's total of $64,147.

"We're very much below what Alpharetta would charge by a substantial amount," said City Manager Kip Padgett. "We hope to get some marketing strategies in place with our communications department soon to get the word out for those interested in locating here."

Alpharetta officials approved an economic incentive package that would waive $25,000 in inspection and permit fees. To receive the full package, the companies must occupy a minimum of 20,000 square feet, create at least 100 full-time jobs paying an average salary of $62,000 plus health benefits and commit to a five-year lease on the building.

"It appears that these criteria are quite stringent in order for a business to take advantage of the fee waivers," Ligon wrote in a memo to Padgett.

"Additionally, the incentives being offered for Alpharetta do not include any reduction in impact fees; rather they apply only to the building permit fees."

Ligon is also comparing fees in other communities, such as Suwanee, Marietta, Rome and Dalton.

"We're probably looking at 10 others and are already getting back some information," Ligon said Wednesday. "We want to share the information with council and then send it out, easily in the next month."

The effort could help bring business to the downtown area, where council members are eyeing empty storefronts, Hamrick said.

"You see a lot of corporate offices coming into the Atlanta area, and I just felt like this could attract businesses from there," he said. "Even though we're a few miles north of the metro area, it's still within reasonable commuting time to the airport and other economic centers."