The city of Conyers and organizers behind the idea of a business incubator said they are open to having it in locations besides the Acuity Brands Lighting property donated last year that sparked the idea in the first place.

Mayor Randy Mills said, "The concept is still live and kicking. All the variables we have in place." The only question is where the incubator would be located.

"The committee felt we needed to explore other areas," he said. "We’ve said we only need 50,000 square feet to do (the incubator) and the Acuity site is ten times that size. Things have been just exploratory."

Environmental attorneys and inspectors have been examining the property, a former manufacturing space which is 42 acres and has 500,000 square feet of structure space. Mills said the city was doing its due dilligence before receiving it but that the back and forth between attorneys should wrap up within the next 90 days.

Councilman Marty Jones recently reported to the Conyers-Rockdale Chamber of Commerce board that one of the alternate sites brainstormed was the county's space in the former Maxell building on Parker Road. The city had reportedly approached county Chairman Richard Oden's staff.

Mills warned these were just ideas and very "preliminary, preliminary" discussions.

However, if the inclubator were at the former Maxell site, that would have the added benefit of being just down the street from the Rockdale Career Academy, which is already the site of programs from Mercer University, Georgia Perimeter College, and DeKalb Tech.

"If you landed another educational facility in that area, you’re creating an educational corridor. The synergy would redevelop that area," Mills said.

The educational institution to be involved, yet unnamed, is reportedly still interested in the incubator even if it was located in a place other than the Acuity building.

He added, "We know the college will be successful wherever it goes. But we wanted to make sure the incubator will be successful and the seed money gets the biggest bang for its buck."

The incubator would be the final component of a comprehensive facility that would also include an economic development center with the Conyers-Rockdale Economic Development Council's offices and the presence of an educational institution.

The incubator would provide low-cost facilities to startups and proposed businesses, along with the rigorous screening and guidence of indsustry and business experts.

"The stats are really compelling," said Jones in a previous interview. "If someone goes through the incubator process, their success rate is four, five times higher than if they don't."