The largest commercial development to hit southwest Fulton County in decades is inching closer to reality. Conceived as a major retail venue along Ga. Highway 74 and spanning 100 acres just south of I-85 between Oakley Industrial Boulevard and Milam Road, Fairburn City Administrator Jim Williams told council members Monday he expected the property to close by mid-August.

“This long awaited project is beginning to materialize and, hopefully, before too much longer we’ll have some names of some tenants that will be involved in the project,” said Williams.

Initially envisioned to be completed in several phases, the full development of the site would place multiple anchor stores and upwards of one million square feet of retail space inside Fairburn city limits, along the east side of the Hwy. 74 Corridor.

“We expect that the actual closings on the property will happen between now and Aug. 15,” Williams said. “When I expressed some concern about this taking a long time to close on the property they said that the developer has a very, very substantial amount of earnest money down that will be forfeited if the project doesn’t close, so we’re all confident that he’s not going to walk away from it. We expect that approximately the first of June we’ll be seeing some of the engineering drawings.”

The development was studied by Atlanta Regional Commission and Georgia Transportation Authority as a Development of Regional Impact (DRI). Their perusal of the proposal has been completed, Williams said, paving the way for the next phases of the development. The recommendations stemming from the study, involving factors such as curb and median cuts and Park and Ride facilities, were all a part of Fairburn’s initial concept and one with which developers had previously agreed to provide.

“The regional review process for the commercial area on Hwy. 74 has been concluded. It’s been all through the Atlanta Regional Commission and Georgia Regional Transportation Authority and everything is in good shape,” Williams said. “The developer has agreed to the recommendations they made and so we’re ready to move on to the next step.”

The 100-acre retail development will extend on the east side of Hwy. 74 between Oakley and Milam Road, excluding the current retail area located on the northeast corner of Hwy. 74 and Milam. The conceptual Site Plan was approved by the city council Nov. 14. That vote gave the go-ahead for the first phase of the massive development.

The conceptual site plan for the overall development designates two interparcel roadways inside the development running roughly parallel to Hwy. 74 with a third road in the rear to function as an access road. In the project’s first phase, in the area beginning at Milam Road and running north, the roads would run to the power line easement. It is at that location along SR 74 where the first of two eventual median cuts will be made and a traffic light installed.

Businesses that have opened along the Hwy. 74 corridor south of I-85 during the past year include Hampton, Zaxby’s and Black Jack Motorcycles. Wingate Inn is under construction and a small animal and an indoor soccer facility have been approved by the city council. Other projects are in various stages of planning.