Council annexes land for apartment/retail site 

One Real Rely LLC’s plan to bring a shopping mall, restaurants and 300 apartments to more than 30 acres of property off Ga. 257 has cleared its first hurdle.

Dublin City Council unanimously approved a request Thursday to annex 30.09 acres of land for highway-oriented business located off Ga. 257, across from the current site where Hwashin Georgia is being built. 

Before the public hearing on the matter, Dublin Mayor Joshua Kight noted that council’s action is only for the annexation with an associated zoning and not approval of the site plan that was provided by the developer.

“Any actual development of that parcel will have to go back through our planning and zoning department,” Kight said. 

During the public hearing, Mitzi Renfroe talked to council on behalf of Sridhar (Sam) Konkala, vice president of operations with One Real Rely. She lived here for a while before moving to Pooler, where Konkala had built up an area. She said her children do not want to live here because “there’s not enough growth here.”

“I think that this kind of opportunity to build something on 257, which is the road I travel down every single day … would bring business back here,” she said. “I think it would be great and something for my children would come back and pour into where right now we don’t have something like this on 257. … I think it would be great for Dublin.” 

At a previous meeting, Konkala talked about some of his hopes and plans if the city approved the resolution.

Konkala, who has said he has commercial locations in Woodstock, Bremen, Alpharetta and Suwanee, said he wants to have high-end apartments with a gated community, shops and restaurants. Konkala wanted to have a location for this type of service on the Interstate 16 corridor. 

He said the majority of the population is going to Exit 51, which is why he likes the location not too far from Exit 49. He looked in Pooler and Macon, but liked the way he was treated in Dublin.

Konkala is expecting 100 to 150 jobs coming the area because of this project. According to a conceptual site plan Konkala handed out at the meeting, the plan calls for 300 residential units with a clubhouse, neighborhood retail (approximately 35,000 square foot), restaurant pads, two-story office buildings (50,000 square foot total), 120 key hotel, supermarket, department stores, an event hall (15,000 square foot, and a clubhouse with pickleball courts.

During a planning and zoning meeting on Feb. 12, Konkala told the zoning board that he will be partnering with national companies. The zoning committee unanimously approved the recommendation and sent it to council for their action.

At the previous meeting, an ordinance to rezone 16.85 acres of property located on 2778 Ga. 257 from professional to multifamily residential was tabled. Kight said they wanted to make sure they could go forward with it, and have since been given the green light to do so. The council approved to hold a second reading, followed by a public hearing and vote at the 5:30 p.m. April 3 meeting. 

In other meeting news, the council:

• Approved two soft starts for the Academy Extension lift stations to Xylem Water Solutions USA Inc., for $15,754.92. The lift stations have large pumps on them and the soft starts help extend the life of the pumps, said Dublin City Manager Josh Powell.

• Approved a 2024 Ford Interceptor SUV as a replacement Dublin Police Department vehicle that was involved in an accident. The new vehicle will be bought from Hardy Family Ford in Dallas, Georgia, for $47,870. The equipment from the wrecked vehicle was salvaged and will be transferred into the new one, Powell said. The insurance payout was $20,115.50 for an overage of $29,849.50.

• Approved two 2025 Chevrolet Tahoes from Hardy Chevrolet for a total of $108,550. These were purchased for the HEAT grant that was approved during a city council meeting in February.

“We have to front the money for the purchases,” Powell said. “We will get 100 percent reimbursed by the HEAT grant.”

– Approved driveway installation for the water administrator office near the water treatment plant, for $15,000 to Padgett Asphalt.

– Approved Peacock Drive storm drain repair by L&L Utilities Inc., for $24,000.

• Approved a resolution covering the terms and conditions for the 2026 HEAT grant for the DPD. The funding for this grant will start on Oct. 1 this year and the salary of two officers, Powell said.

• Approved water meter installations with M&E Construction company for $70,064. 

“This is our third year doing this,” Powell said. “This council approved for us to do a comprehensive meter replacement citywide. Our goal is to replace 10 percent of our meters because there are several that are very, very old. This is for more than 800 meters. We have roughly 8,000 citywide.”

Kight added that the meter installations are planned to start around March 17.

“City officials will be providing notice to the neighborhoods,” the mayor said. 

• Approved a declaration of surplus for fire department hoses and rescue tools.