Report: Developers Eyeing Massive Project for Tennis Stadium, Former Target

Nearly a year after , a news article reports developers are looking at a very similar, gigantic concept for the property.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that location would include a 7,000-seat arena, 33 sports fields, 700 hotel rooms, 915 town homes and 180,000 square feet of commercial space -- according to the proposal submitted to Gwinnett County, the article said.

A partner in the proposed Stone Mountain Athletic & Recreational Training Center, David Stedman, told the AJC the project is still in its infancy and it would take some ten years to come to fruition.

The article said the developer, SMART Center I LLC, has asked Gwinnett County for the OK on a mixed-use redevelopment overlay district for the tennis stadium -- used in the 1996 summer Olympics, but now inactive and run-down --  and the Target store, which closed in 2010.

But the AJC article also said a SMART Center partner has asked that the request be removed from the March agenda of the Municipal-Gwinnett County Planning Commission because the company isn’t yet ready to move ahead.

Last year, a consultant, Bill Tunnell - founding principal of Tunnell-Spangler-Walsh & Associates -  said the rebirth would involve t, and the empty Target building's would become an indoor sports training facility.

Tunnell told that the efforts would require around $51 million in public investments for the stadium and for transportation improvements; $158 million would come from private investment and is the projected market value of all development projected for the site, including hotels, office, retail, and residential, and including stadium and tennis facility values based on their present condition, Tunnell said.

Converting the vacant Target into part of a massive complex isn't quite what readers had in mind when People that they'd like to see a Trader Joe's at that location -- or have Target return.