Cobb Galleria, Performing Arts Centre restart debate over long-term funding

Sep. 16—CUMBERLAND — In January 2020, afraid Cobb's governing board might "kill the goose that's laying the golden eggs," former Gov. Roy Barnes urged its members to extend a funding agreement with the Cobb-Marietta Coliseum and Exhibit Hall Authority.

Less than two months later, the pandemic hit, and those discussions were put on ice.

Until now.

Exhibit Hall Authority CEO Michele Swann said she has begun speaking with members of the Cobb Board of Commissioners in hopes that, by year's end, they extend the authority's current revenue-sharing agreement with the county through 2053, a deal that would allow it to pursue costly, long-term projects needed to stay competitive with other metro Atlanta venues.

The Exhibit Hall Authority owns and operates the Cobb Galleria Centre, Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, the ArtsBridge Foundation and the Galleria Specialty Shops and is funded, in part, by a 8% hotel/motel tax.

Of the total proceeds from that hotel tax, a share goes to the cities and Cobb Travel and Tourism. The remainder is split between the county and the Exhibit Hall Authority. The county gets 37.5%, and the authority, 62.5%. The agreement that set the split at its current rate is expected to expire in 2026, according to authority spokesperson Karen Caro; the authority hopes to keep that share at 62.5% through 2053.

At that January 2020 commission meeting, Barnes was joined by several county heavyweights, including members of the authority's board; members of the Cobb Travel and Tourism Board; Cobb Chamber of Commerce leaders Sharon Mason, John Loud and Mitch Rhoden; Acworth Mayor Tommy Allegood; and two executives from the Renaissance Waverly, a Cumberland hotel.

"Without our ability to continue to improve that facility — not just maintain it, but improve it — we will lose ground to our (competitors)," Bob Voyles, a member of the authority's board, said at that meeting. "The advantage of the hotel motel tax is that it creates a revenue stream that you can create bonds and borrow money against, and that's always how these facilities get built and improved and added onto."

The Cobb Galleria Centre is a convention center that also features an indoor mall, the Galleria Specialty Shops. Should the Board of Commissioners extend the current funding arrangement through 2053, it would renovate the convention center and convert the Galleria Specialty Shops to a Headquarters Hotel and meeting space, Swann said this week.

At that January 2020 commission meeting, Lisa Cupid, then a commissioner representing south Cobb, said she would like the county to get a larger slice of hotel/motel tax revenue.

"If we continue to put our money in entities that don't spread across where there's need ... you're just going to see that divide grow more," Cupid said, referring to disparities between and needs among communities within Cobb. "If we're going to bind this funding source for the next 20-plus years, 30 years, (I think) that we should look at how we can make this a win across the county."

She would later say that revenue could go toward other tourist venues in the county, such as Six Flags, which "has not seen much support."

"I think we can be creative in how we ensure the support for these two large assets that we have in Cobb," she said at the time. "My concern is that if we keep the same funding mechanism ... that it would result in there being an investment that is inadequate to lift up other parts of the county."

Then-Chairman Mike Boyce said he would recuse himself from a vote on the matter, given his position on the authority's board. (The chair of the Cobb Board of Commissioners sits on several other boards by virtue of his or her position, including that of the Exhibit Hall Authority.)

Cupid, who replaced Boyce as commission chair in January, was more circumspect when asked about the authority's request Wednesday.

"Right now we are still in preliminary discussion about this," she said. "I certainly would like to see travel and tourism better supported throughout the county. I also want to see the assets in the Cumberland area continue to thrive. I am hopeful we will find resolution.

"As for abstention, I serve on a number of boards and committees by virtue of my position and if I were to abstain from voting on all related matters I would be unduly hampered in my ability to perform. With that said, for this particular matter, I do not perceive any current conflict that prohibits me from voting in a manner that prioritizes the interests of the county."

MDJ reporter Chart Riggall contributed to this report