Cumming City Center offers new destination

It’s a place where folks can tread on a boardwalk over a wetland studded with seasonal native blooms, shop for trendy game day duds, grab an ice-cream cone or sit down for dinner, groove to live music, and sip a cocktail at a rooftop bar. No, it’s not booming downtown Gainesville. It’s the Cumming City Center, a 75-acre retail, entertainment, and green space community mecca that seemingly sprung from the dirt west of town.

Prior to taking office, Cumming Mayor Troy Brumbalow envisioned a modern gathering place grounded in old-time Americana, a welcoming place where hometowners and visitors in flip flops or gym clothes could shop, dine, and mingle. Or where high school homecoming courts in glam attire could primp and pose.

“When I ran for election in 2017, my vision for the city was creating a city center. I found that property for sale and it was the only suitable site financially for what I wanted to do,” he said. The acreage, consisting of kudzu-covered former farmland, an eroded straightened stream, lots of kudzu, and adjoining empty lots collecting litter, became the go-to destination downtown Cumming could not offer. Hemmed in by municipal buildings, the jail, and poultry industry infrastructure, the old heart of Forsyth County resembled a clogged artery, a workplace beat that shut down after work.

The city put roughly $4 million into acquiring the property between Ga. 20 and Sawnee Drive, a swath between one of the oldest churches in the city and Forsyth Central High School. Another 11 acres was donated. Brumbalow walked the land with a notebook and penciled in his vision: local shops and eateries with early 20th century facades, a grassy amphitheater, classic fountain, pocket parks steeped in local history, mini-golf course, and a half-mile trail system destined to tie into the Big Creek Greenway from Cumming to Roswell.

After groundbreaking in 2019, the pandemic slowed construction and development somewhat, but it also brought new business perspectives seeking fresh air. “Covid did not stop local business owners,” said Cumming City Center Marketing Director Jennifer Archer. “ A lot saw the downtime as an opportunity to change strategies, to reinvent.” The new concept at the City Center presented open air spaces, where eatery customers could order dinner at a booth inside or purchase food at server windows and eat at a pavilion with tables. Merchants liked the center’s walkability which invited people on fitness walks or pushing strollers into their shops and restaurants.

At the ribbon cutting ceremony in June 2022, Ga. Gov. Brian Kemp praised the project as both a local amenity and a “new venue that will draw visitors from around the state and beyond.” That ceremony marked the end of the city’s construction phase and the beginning of individual buildouts at each business, according to a City Center press release.

Archer said she sought a variety of local mom and pop businesses and avoided big box. “We tried to target different types of food and clothing stores from trendy to boho to offer different types of vibes,” she said. She added that the 117,000 feet of retail space is completely leased. Some of the businesses are still getting ready to open, including Crooked Culture Brewery which is hiring but buckets and ladders inside show a tap room not ready to pour. A sign in a British pub front says “Coming Soon.”

Each store that opened after months of pop-up markets and food trucks marked a milestone, according to Archer. “The coffee shop is always packed,” she said. The farmers market, which moved from the Cumming Fairgrounds, will continue to bring in shoppers on Saturdays through the fall. Annual festivals, such as the September Cumming Art Fest and upcoming winter market, holiday tree lighting, and beer, wine and seltzer celebration, all enrich the culture of the small town-outside-of-town.

Archer said “a huge deal” was consummated when Cumming-based Lou Sobh Automotive signed as title sponsor of the centerpiece amphitheater. “Lou Sobh has been extremely active in supporting our community,” she said. The partnership enables the center to host nearly weekly entertainment arranged by Chris Cauley’s Four Carsons Entertainment, run by a Cumming music director and vocalist who performed on NBC’s “The Voice.” Live jazz, blues, folk, and rock concerts bring 2,000 to 3,000 attendees to the outdoor venue on weekend nights.

When the amphitheater’s artificial turf is not lined with concertgoers, the kids of Cumming come out to play. On a September evening after a rainy day, dozens of kids of all ages tossed frisbees and footballs. Teenagers from North Forsyth High School dressed-up for homecoming festivities romped the grounds and posed for photos at the fountain. Miniature golf players putted on greens that replicate famous holes around the world. Parents pushed strollers along the boardwalks that meander over late summer wildflowers and cattails. Clear weather views of Sawnee Mountain beckon future hikers to explore the territory across Ga. 20 where trail expansion is under way.

A server at Homestead, an upscale casual restaurant with rooftop bar, remembers riding 4-wheelers on the vacant territory when he was in high school. He savors the venue now. “I love the City Center. It is a place for Forsyth County to show who we are, where we are.”

“I’m happy it’s come to life,” said Marcus Miller, Homestead’s VP of Operations. “The businesses here have hunkered down and stuck with it” while waiting for the City Center to evolve. “The best is yet to come,” he said. “The live music outside has been great … the outdoor space is really special. You don’t find this kind of community anywhere else.”

An artist selling whimsical paintings at the recent Art Fest said the City Center has blossomed from last year’s buds. “It reminded me of the wild west last year. This year the lights are on,” she said. She knows local artists who set up permanent shops. “I see a whole field of kids playing,” she added. “It’s really inviting.”

Reagan Tippin pushed a baby stroller onto the main plaza while her husband paused by the fountain with their 2-year-old. The family had just left the coffee shop for a jaunt on the grounds. “I think it’s lovely,” the five-year Cumming resident remarked. “I love the layout. It’s very easy to go from the parking deck to the coffeehouse, the amphitheater and greenway. You can stretch out with a blanket and grab something to eat.” She especially enjoys the concerts. Early on, the Tippinses bought a commemorative “Family Brick” with their name on it to help finance one of the pocket parks with a steam engine. They feel they are a part of it.

“It puts a smile on my face every time I go,” said Cumming Mayor Brumbalow. Although Archer noted some detractors “for whatever reasons,” most townspeople and tourists have reacted positively. “Amazing is an understatement,” Brumbalow said. “People love the environment.”

He pointed out that two other developments to the south, Halcyon and Avalon in Alpharetta, exude a whole different upscale ambiance. “We wanted (Cumming City Center) to be cozy, relaxed … not urbanized hustle-bustle,” he said. A third being developed, The Gathering at South Forsyth, a private enterprise eyeing a professional hockey team, radiates grander ambitions. “Our environment is a small town, Americana feel, setting us apart,” the mayor said.

He’s excited about the trail’s future connections, plus a 65-unit residential component, potential boutique hotel, and police department move to the City Center. He said the city is looking at the feasibility of adding more property to its popular new venue with an old-timey feel.

See Lakeside’s Outdoor Calendar for events at Cumming City Center.

Photos: by Jane Harrison