Around Town: Rome Speedway Seeks Green Flag for Switch to Manufacturing Site. Atrium Pays $17.6M for Kindred Building.

On select summer evenings off U.S. 411 and Chulio Road, you can easily hear the roar in the air. It has nothing to do with the cicadas; instead it signals another gathering of racing enthusiasts at Rome Speedway.

But those events have slowed in recent years, for health and other reasons, and now much broader changes are proposed.

The Swims family purchased the speedway in 1968 and staged their first race the following March. The question now is what comes next.

Mickey Swims is petitioning the Rome-Floyd Planning Commission to rezone 141 acres from Chulio Road to U.S. 411 east of the city to accommodate industrial/manufacturing. If granted, the zoning would change from suburban-residential/multifamily to heavy industrial.

We have calls and an email into the Swims for comment.

The hearing is set for 2:30 p.m. Aug. 1 at city hall and, already, it has drawn nearly 320 “signatures” on a change.org petition to “Stop Rezoning of the Rome Motor Speedway.”

The petition organizer, Christie Carroll, cites potential pollution (including noise) in the Spring Creek community as well as further traffic concerns on Chulio Road.

That’s in addition to the impact of Pleasant Valley Preserve’s planned 920 single-family homes bordering Chulio, Boyd Valley and Pleasant Valley roads. Work on phase one, with 192 homes, is well underway.

Missy Kendrick, president and chief executive officer of the Rome Floyd Development Authority, told the Rome News-Tribune the Swims family is hoping to sell the site but first must get it rezoned to accommodate potential clients.

As of now, the development authority has not heard from any speculative tenants, she adds. The rezoning application shows it would need a quarter-mile extension of water lines from Rome as well as a one-mile expansion of sewer lines.

The speedway site is just west of the 202-acre Braden family property off 411 and Bass Ferry Road purchased by the development authority for $4.2 million three years ago.

Now dubbed Enterprise Corner, the farmland is being advertised at $60,000 an acre or three times what the development authority paid. One potential use is a home for second- or third-tier companies supporting the SK On/Hyundai electronical vehicle battery plant outside of Cartersville.

That $5 billion campus is well underway and new traffic signals on U.S. 411 are now in place.

Atrium closes $17.6M deal

Atrium Health Floyd buys former Kindred building. The $17.6 million purchase showed up in recent real estate transactions and includes the building at 304 Turner McCall Blvd.

The 45-bed “transitional care” hospital opened in 2011 but closed four years ago. Atrium/Floyd utilized parts of the Kindred site for covid patients during the height of the pandemic.

The official word from Atrium Health Floyd:

“Last Friday (July 12), Floyd Healthcare Management Inc. (Atrium Health Floyd) purchased the former Kindred Building owned by a national real estate invest trust group, CMK2B Rome LLC, which sits on property owned by The Hospital Authority of Floyd County. Atrium Health Floyd has leased space in the building since it was constructed in 2011 and is glad to now have ownership and control over this important building connected to our hospital.”

Olive Garden Cartersville bound

It is time to say good night to Knights Inn in Cartersville as Olive Garden is moving forward with year-old plans at East Main and East Church streets near the home of Target and Publix.

The plan has been in circulation for roughly a year and the hotel has now been demolished.

Olive Garden “has all the plans in place,” says Randy Mannino, Cartersville’s planning and development director. The site plan and building plan have been approved, he says, and the restaurant got a key OK from Georgia’s Department of Transportation as well.

We have a note in to Darden, the parent company of Olive Garden, as well.

Popcorn & Politics

The week that was: You know you’re witnessing a historic election year when a political party’s nominating convention becomes a sidebar. Consider the week — which isn’t over:

Saturday: A 20-year-old attempts an assassination of Donald Trump,♦ wounding his right ear but leaving the Republican nominee more defiant than ever.

Monday: J.D. Vance,♦ the junior Ohio senator and heart of “Hillbilly Elegy,” is named as Trump’s choice for the vice presidential slot on the GOP ticket.

Monday: An equally defiant Joe Biden runs circles around NBC’s Lester Holt♦ in the president’s latest media sit down to temper post-debate fallout.

Wednesday:♦ Biden, on the campaign trail, cancels a speech as he’s diagnosed with another case of covid amid a summer uptick. That comes even as more Democrats urge the incumbent to step aside from the 2024 ticket.

With more than three months to go until election day, you have to assume a few more twists are on the way.

Peaks & Valleys

The highs and lows of Northwest Georgia

Peak to the enterprising young man behind Whit’s Lemonade Stand: Next Thursday, from 11 a.m. until 1:30 p.m., Whit Molnar will have his summer staple back in business. The 13th edition of his lemonade stand — also offering cakes and other items — will again be raising money for Rome’s Open Door Home. With your help next week, Whit will top $100,000 in overall donations generated by sales at 210 E. Fourth St. For more: 706-266-7708.

Valley to our forgotten golden memories: As Northwest Georgia’s Brody Malone prepares to go for the gold as part of the U.S. gymnastics team later this month, an anniversary is upon us. It was 28 years ago tonight — July 19, 1996 — when the Summer Games opened in Atlanta after a series of preview events that included stops in Northwest Georgia. Much of that has been forgotten a generation later. But Malone, 24, is keeping some of that spirit alive.