Smyrna lifts veil on ambitious plans for reimagined downtown

Specific plans for the City of Smyrna’s years-long quest to create a thriving, walkable, 21st century downtown are coming into sharper focus. 

Following a process of what city leaders have called “extensive citizen input” and “careful market analysis,” the Cobb County city has compiled a sweeping downtown concept that would combine adaptive-reuse and parking-lot redevelopment with a connective, Beltline-style multi-use trail.    

A series of community meetings and site analyses throughout 2025 produced three draft downtown concepts for The Jonquil City. More than 4,000 Smyrna residents have weighed in on plans to date, per city officials. 

From those three general ideas a residential and mixed-use heavy frontrunner concept (with a small food hall) has emerged, as Smyrna officials and project leaders relayed at a meeting last week. 

Plans call for 350 new homes—a mix of rentals and for-sale units—alongside a 120-room hotel. Up to a half-dozen restaurants and eight to 12 additional retail businesses are included, alongside greenspaces and the Jonquil Mile trail. No new office space is mentioned in plans. 

The highest density section—roughly five stories—would be built along King Street, which is envisioned as an activated urban strip with the biking and pedestrian path running through. 

City officials closed a deal with Smyrna First Baptist Church in December to sell its 9-acre campus for $15.8 million. Smyrna plans to combine the church campus with an adjacent former Presbyterian church property the city previously acquired.

The church properties are adjacent to the mixed-use village considered downtown Smyrna today, situated along Atlanta Road about three miles outside the Interstate 285 Perimeter. 

The city’s Village Green redevelopment is situated just beyond the church properties, with a second, long-planned location of Suwanee’s popular StillFire Brewing in the works as part of the commercial component there. (The brewery is now tentatively scheduled to open in early 2026.)   

What’s next? With a preferred concept in place, city officials plan to start drafting a final document that could come up for a Smyrna City Council vote in January or February. 

That would be followed by a Request for Qualifications/Proposals process to find the right development partner, per the city. 

Founded nearly 140 years ago, Smyrna First Baptist Church plans to use the nearly $16-million buyout to develop a new 5.5-acre campus within walking distance of its current one along Atlanta Road.

The land deal in December was part of a sale-leaseback agreement between the church and city. Church officials plan to keep operating on the existing property until construction plans for both the city and church are finalized.

One building that will remain standing, the church’s century-old stone chapel, is expected to be converted to public uses, such as live performances and community events.

The revised outlook for development beginning is two to three years from now, as 11Alive reports. 

Find more context and concept images in the gallery above. And here’s a Before/After overview of what could officially be in Smyrna’s pipeline soon: