Traffic on Pike Street moves past a property Tuesday that will soon be redeveloped by The PM Company for a mixed use development that will cost $10 million.
A multimillion dollar development is coming to Marietta, with site preparation set to start in May.
During a public meeting about the city of Marietta’s negative performance audit on April 11, Mayor Joshua Schlicher announced that there is $40 million in developments coming to Marietta on Pike Street.
Marietta Zoning Enforcement Officer Jim Caldwell confirmed that there is an interest in putting a development on the property located on Pike Street between North Hart Street and Elmwood Avenue and that stretches up to Buckeye Avenue. Washington County property records show that there are several parcels that make up the property and that they are all owned by Wetz Properties LLC, which is located in Marietta.
“That’s going to be multi-use there, office space, some retail and a restaurant,” Caldwell said.
According to Caldwell the development doesn’t have a name yet. Schlicher confirmed Monday evening that the company developing the site is Vienna-based The PM Company (PMC).
Caldwell said PMC has asked the city for two variances and a special exemption for the site. He said the variances were for green space and some on-street parking and the special exemption was to have a medical provider as a tenant. He emphasized that does not mean there will be a medical provider as a tenant, just that PMC has asked for the special exception in case they have one as a tenant.
Caldwell said PMC also asked council for Ash Avenue to be vacated. An emergency ordinance to vacate Buckeye Avenue, North Hart Street, Elmwood Avenue and Pike Street, owned by Wetz Properties LLC, was passed in December 2023.
A Wetz Properties LLC representative declined to comment on the development or identify herself, though she confirmed that Wetz still owns the property at this time.
Monday night after a city council committee meeting, both Schlicher and Caldwell confirmed that one of the possible tenants coming to the development is Chipotle.
PMC Real Estate Director Jared Decker confirmed that the property is going to be “a retail mixed use development” and that the property is made up of the whole block comprised of Buckeye Avenue, Elmwood Avenue, Pike Street and N Hart Street.
Decker said “we’ve got 4.2 acres there.”
He also confirmed that PMC is purchasing the property from Wetz Properties LLC and that the sale will close next week.
According to Decker, there will be two parcels at the front of the property that will be on Pike Street and there will be one building built on each parcel for a total of two buildings at the front of the property. He said the two buildings will be “purely retail space.”
There will also be a two-acre parcel in the back of the property that will have one to three buildings that will be mixed-use retail and office space, Decker said.
Decker declined to share square footage information for the buildings.
When asked if there are any tenants lined up for the development yet, Deckers said he “has some things in the hopper” but he is not at liberty to name any tenants yet.
He said the project “will be the newest development in Marietta and it will be one of the larger retail projects in Marietta.”
“We’re excited about it.”
He said PMC will start on the project around the first of May and the first thing they will do is bring in fill dirt to raise the property out of the flood plain.
He expects that to take two or three months.
“Then we’ll have the first tenant there in the first quarter of 2025,” Decker said.
When asked if there will be traffic issues caused by the project, Decker said no, he doesn’t believe they will be working in the right-of-way.
Decker thinks it will take 12-18 months before PMC is ready to have tenants in the back parcel building(s) and said it would depend on when the buildings are complete.
The cost of the project is “every bit of $10 million,” Decker said.
Decker confirmed that an environmental study has been performed for the project and that there were no issues raised in the study.
“We came back with a clean bill of health,” he said.
Decker thinks that the development will bring several positives to the community.
“I think anywhere you inject a $10 million investment into a small economy like Vienna or Marietta … it has numerous benefits,” he said.
Decker said one benefit is jobs. He said the project will create temporary construction jobs.
He also said he expects the project to bring 50-70 permanent jobs in the front two buildings and he expects possibly 50-70 permanent jobs in the front two buildings and possibly 50-100 permanent jobs in the building(s) in the back of the property.
He said it will also increase property tax, sales taxes and business and occupation tax revenue.
The development will be “an economic driver for the city and residents of the city,” Decker said. “We’re excited about it.”
The two other developments that Schlicher mentioned at the April 11 public audit meeting are the Marietta Riverside Project and the Texas Road House project. Both projects have already been announced, in 2021 and 2023, respectively
Michelle Dillon can be reached at mdillon@newsandsentinel.com
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