The city of Covington agreed to sell 99.7 acres of land along Alcovy Road to The Foxfield Company for $1.52 million Monday night.

After discussing the sole bid on the property in executive session, the city council voted 4-2 to accept it with councilmen Chris Smith and Keith Dalton voting against.

Mike Whatley made the motion to sell to Foxfield with Janet Goodman seconding it.

The contract starts the process for a large commercial development called Covington Towne Center. The development would include two Class A office buildings, two hotels and retail development.

“This is one step,” Covington Mayor Ronnie Johnston said. “There is a lot more to do with this project. But we’re moving in the right direction.”

Having an agreement for the office buildings to be at 50 percent occupancy and one hotel is one of the performance criteria in the contract for the land purchase.

According to the contract, Foxfield has to provide the city with “evidence, reasonably satisfactory” to construct two 50,000-square-foot office buildings and one 150-room hotel on the property and building commitments from occupants of the office building to lease or purchase a minimum of 50 percent of those buildings.

The proof of 50 percent office space occupancy and construction of a hotel is one of four steps needed before Covington Towne Center becomes a reality. The other three are the city of Covington signing an intergovernmental agreement with Newton County, changing the zoning on the property from industrial, office and/or commercial use to commercial and retail use and getting a site development agreement with Newton County.

Aside from those four steps for the city, Foxfield also has 180 days of due diligence and 240 days of closing before the property will officially be able to be sold and developed.

The $1.52 million Foxfield will pay the city of Covington will go toward the $2.9 million in infrastructure improvement fees required by the developer, according to the contract.

The other $1.4 million the city will need to spend on roads, sewage and water infrastructure will come from the cable funds remaining from the deal reached with Charter to provide cable to Covington.

According to Smith there is $6 million in the cable fund account and another $3 million in CDs before the $1.4 is withdrawn.

The project first came to light when Johnston published a letter in The News making the public aware of a developer seeking to bring Class A office space, hotels, retail shops and a move theater to Covington.

Since then there has been back-and-forth discussion in the press and at council meetings on the potential deal.
Among the detractors of the deal from the beginning were Dalton and Smith, who voted against it Monday.

Smith said he was against the development’s location, no timeline on the developer building a hotel and getting 50 percent occupancy on the office buildings and the fact that the developer can sell the property to whoever they want.

Smith wanted the inclusion of first rights of refusal by Covington in the contract, but it did not happen.

“Since the vote has taken place, I will support the wishes of the council,” Smith said. “I did stick with my guns in not voting for the project, but I am for retail and commercial development in the city of Covington.”

The development by Foxfield is expected to create 1,500 jobs and $200,000,000 million worth of investment according to the Covington-Newton County Chamber of Commerce.

According to the resume of The Foxfield Company attached to the bid submitted to the city on Nov. 6 obtained by the News, it “is a diversified commercial real estate company which was founded in 1989.” Foxfield’s president is Harry E. Kitchen and vice president Charlotte S. Kitchen.

Foxfield’s projects have an aggregate value in excess of $375 million, according to its resume. Foxfield is currently involved with the development of Compass Industrial Park in Savannah, which consists of 700 acres of industrial/manufacturing land that is approved for 3.25 million square feet of industrial space and 399 multifamily units.

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