Great New Restaurant In Nearby Buford
August 25th, 2008 Categories: Gwinnett County, Suwanee Fun Stuff
If you are looking for a new place to enjoy some very fine food, great wine and incredible atmosphere, then you should check out Bella Vita Italian Bistro. Bella Vita is Laurie Attaway’s newest restaurant and is comparable in atmosphere and style to her signature restaurant, Aqua Terra Bistro in historic Buford, with the same focus on excellent food, service and presentation.
Just a short drive up Buford Hwy, you will find Bella Vita in the midst of the Buford Village, the mixed-use development at the corner of Hamilton Mill Rd and Buford Highway. The restaurant is one of the first businesses to open in this new development, which hopes to gain the same level success as Madison Park at Suwanee Town Center. Laurie Attaway’s restaurant fits very well with stylish “live, work, play” environment being created by these new community centers. Bella Vita, like Olde Towne Tavern and Ippolito’s in Suwanee, will provide a community gathering place and fine dining for Buford Village residents, employees and customers of the other surrounding shops, and visitors from nearby communities like Hamilton Mill and Suwanee. I hope to see more businesses and residents moving into the Buford Village soon to support this life-style concept.
My wife and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary at Bella Vita and had such a great time that we went back two nights later with my wife’s parents to share the experience with them. On both nights, every member of the staff serving us was exceptional in their efforts to make everything about the experience memorable. We were especially impressed with Laurin (with an “i”), our waitress for the anniversary dinner, because she was such a pleasant, fun person to meet. We will be back again soon.
Read more about Bella Vita by Lori Johnston (8/1/2008) - AJC AccessAtlanta
Originally posted on Hamilton Mill Dwellings
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Watching Suwanee City Hall Rise With The Sun
August 15th, 2008 Categories: Suwanee Fun Stuff, Suwanee Real Estate
As construction continues on the new Suwanee City Hall building, the view over the park changes daily. This morning the sunrise followed the rising hook of the huge crane as it lifted the last huge steel arch being placed on the front of the building.
The building was designed specifically to point back to Suwanee’s days as a railroad stop. The huge arching roof and clock tower are reminiscent of grand historic railway stations. Sunrise at these railway stations always preceded a rush of activity, and the rising arches of the new Suwanee City Hall precedes the new growth and opportunity for the future of Suwanee’s residents and businesses.
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
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Suwanee Promotes Youth in Performing Arts
August 7th, 2008 Categories: Suwanee Events, Suwanee Fun Stuff
The Suwanee Academy of the Arts is presenting a two-night theatrical treat for Suwanee residents. Tomorrow night, the performance troupe hits the amphitheater stage with a fun, energetic and youthful performance of Disney’s musical “Aladdin” followed on Saturday night by “Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves - The New Musical.” Final rehearsals were completed Thursday night before a slowly growing, curious crowd in preparation for the real audiences Friday and Saturday nights.
Once again the City of Suwanee is providing a great opportunity to experience live theater on a fantastic stage and for free. Don’t miss this opportunity.
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Suwanee’s New City Hall Progressing
August 6th, 2008 Categories: Suwanee Real Estate
Progress continues on the new City Hall building for the City of Suwanee. The rising steel framework overlooks the interactive fountain and Town Center Park. The most prominent recent addition to the structure is the steel skeleton of the 105-foot tall clock tower on the left side of the building. The building is scheduled for completion near the end of 2008, so at the beginning of 2009 the City of Suwanee administrative staff will happily be operating in their new home and the police department will take over the old City Hall building.
The new City Hall is another sign of Suwanee’s continuing progress and growth, which includes numerous other commercial development and construction projects in several areas throughout the city limits. The projects include the large Opus mixed-use development, Suwanee Gateway, near the I-85 and Hwy 317 intersection as well as multiple projects along Peachtree Industrial Blvd. 
Though current economic news and forecasts seem to focus on decreasing markets, there are many signs of growth and opportunity as businesses prepare to move into these new developments and as other projects are started. The residential real estate market will ultimately follow the expanding commercial opportunities and growth.
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Edwin McCain In Concert at Suwanee Town Center Park
August 5th, 2008 Categories: Suwanee Events, Suwanee Fun Stuff
Suwanee’s big event concert of the summer is coming up on Saturday, August 16th when platinum-selling singer/songwriter, Edwin McCain hits the amphitheater stage with his own blend of folk, soul and rock. If you’re already a fan of Edwin McCain, then you probably have this date marked on your calendar because you know that the opportunity to see him perform live for free is just to good to miss. For those few people who are not familiar with Edwin McCain’s music, he is a singer-songwriter from Greenville, SC who is now best known for his hit song “I’ll Be” which has been played at thousands of weddings in the past few years. He also received Top 10 honors for the song “I Could Not Ask For More.” As a native of South Carolina, most of his songs have a hint of southern story-telling style blended
with wonderfully soulful vocals. The Suwanee concert will probably include songs from his newest CD, “Nobody’s Fault But Mine,” which is a collection of cover songs from old soul music. Edwin is currently working on a new project for Vanguard Records at OMG Studios, which he co-owns in his hometown of Greenville, SC.
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Jazz Tonight at Suwanee Town Center Park
August 1st, 2008 Categories: Suwanee Events, Suwanee Fun
Tonight’s free concert in the amphitheater at Suwanee’s Town Center Park will feature Eric Essix and Melvin M. Miller. The concert is sponsored by 107.5 WJZZ radio and Hennessy Jaguar of Gwinnett. As always, the concert runs from 7:00 to 10:00 at no charge to the public. Bring your low-back chairs and blankets to enjoy a great evening of music and fun. There will be vendors to provide food, drinks and family-fun activities throughout the afternoon and evening. The interactive fountain will be available for kids of all ages to splash around, cool off and enjoy. No alcoholic beverages may be brought into the park (beer and wine may be purchased at the concert).
Eric Essix is a jazz guitarist from Birmingham, Alabama whose music has a broad range of influences from gospel to Jimi Hendrix, but always with his own brand of “southerness” blended into the mix. He will be featuring music from his new Essential Recordings CD titled “Brimingham,” which will be available at the concert as well as on his website and iTunes.
Melvin M. Miller (MMM) is an adult contemporary jazz trumpet player with experience not only as a performer but also as a composer, educator and conductor. He was raised in Chicago and influenced by the many diverse musical styles available in one of America’s largest music capitals, but focused heavily on the numerous jazz trumpet greats like Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, and Wynton Marsalis to name a few. His musical training and performance experience includes both jazz and classical. He now lives and works in Atlanta with a long list of local performance credits as well as national and international performances. He will feature music from his new CD titled “Here’s To Life,” which will be available tonight as well as on his website and iTunes.
Both Eric Essix and Melvin Miller are part of the five-man jazz group, “Five Men On A Stool,” which can also be seen at local and regional performances.
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Suwanee Lifestyle Being Copied By Others
July 31st, 2008 Categories: Atlanta Real Estate, Suwanee Real Estate
The wonderful “live, work, play” lifestyle that Suwanee has created is now being pursued by
many other cities in Gwinnett county and with good reason. The Town Center Park development has been a huge success for the City of Suwanee and continues to draw in visitors from all over the metro-Atlanta area for the free concerts and park events. Once people experience the park with the amphitheater and interactive fountain during one of the frequent park concerts, movies or festivals, then they tell their friends and neighbors and return with more people for the next event.
Buford has already built their mixed-use development at the intersection of Buford Hwy and Hamilton Mill Rd. Their concept of providing shops, restaurants and residential condos in a walkable development is very similar to Suwanee’s concept. However without the park, amphitheater and fountain in the recent economic environment, the Buford Village development is not filling as quickly as anticipated, but will be successful in the long run. The concept is definitely being accepted and even sought out by many commercial and residential buyers as the real estate market continues to improve throughout the Atlanta markets.
Both Norcross and Duluth have their own versions of the mixed-use “live, work, play” developments either under construction or consideration as means of revitalizing certain sections of those communities. Alpharetta’s Prospect Park is another example of the expansion of the mixed-use development concept. As described in Beth Warren’s AJC article on 7/30/08, Loganville’s city council will soon be reviewing and voting on a mixed-use development on 28 acres surrounding an existing lake on US 78, which is proposed to include an amphitheater for concerts and community events very similar to Suwanee Town Center Park and Atlantic Station in downtown Atlanta.
Suwanee Gateway (Opus South development) at I-85 and Lawrenceville-Suwanee Rd is under construction and will become another great addition to the “Play Hard, Live Well, Smile More” neighborhoods of Suwanee. As residents of Suwanee, we already know about the lifestyle that the reader’s of Money magazine learned from the 2007 “Best Places to Live” edition and what many of our neighboring communities are beginning to learn.
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Suwanee Life is Good Concert with The Wailers
June 24th, 2008 Categories: Suwanee Events, Suwanee Fun Stuff
The Life is Good Festival on Saturday (6/14/08) at Town Center Park featured a concert by the legendary reggae band The Wailers, Bob Marley’s band. Hundreds of people returned to the park after the short downpour which ended the other festival activities and they were treated to a fantastic performance by The Wailers. Enjoy this short video slideshow from the performance. Since The Wailers music is copyrighted and I was not able to obtain permission for its use, I’ve chosen to use Creative Common Licensed music, “Havana Rules” from artist Adam Burns.
Suwanee, GA Community Video - Suwanee, GA 30024
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Beautiful Morning Walks on the Suwanee Greenway
June 23rd, 2008 Categories: Suwanee Fun Stuff, Suwanee Real Estate
Take a break from the heat with a refreshing look back at scenes from some cool, morning walks during this past fall on the Suwanee Greenway. These were taken just after the completion of the walk-over bridge connecting Town Center Park and the Greenway.
Any walk (or jog) on the greenway paths is a treat, but during the fall you get the added visual effect of brilliant colors and cool morning breezes. The greenway trails are a great place to walk, run, jog or bike anytime of year because many areas of the trails are shaded from direct sunlight and surrounded by the beautiful trees, shrubs and flowers preserved for our enjoyment. Most of these excursions are is often enhanced by encounters with local wildlife such as squirrels, rabbits, deer and birds of many different varieties. Get out an enjoy the fun, but be sure to come back during the fall.
Suwanee, Georgia Community Video - Suwanee, GA 30024
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Impromptu Fun and Entertainment - Town Center Park, Suwanee, GA
June 20th, 2008 Categories: Suwanee Fun Stuff, Suwanee Real Estate
One of Suwanee’s greatest attributes is the genuine small-town neighborhood feeling that fills the area and creates a friendly, inviting atmosphere. Town Center Park serves as a catalyst for that friendly atmosphere and the community pride that invites people to come play in the park. As a result, people from all walks of life mingle in the park everyday enjoying the wonderful scenery and opportunity to spend time with family and friends. Many times the groups that gather to enjoy themselves attract the attention and curiousity of the other visitors, who are treated to unexpected entertainment or totally new experiences.
A recent example of this occurred when a group of friends gathered in the center of the park
for a “Meet Up” drum circle in the early evening. Area residents and park visitors were treated to about an hour of rhythmic sounds and movement as the group of 20-30 people played their various drums and percussion instruments while belly dancers moved through the circle to their enticing beat. The impromptu gathering drew about 40-50 spectators, with some joining the fun as drummers or dancers.
Other such gatherings include occasional bagpipes practicing in the park, some amazing kite flying demonstrations, or weekend games of Cricket being played by small groups of young men, who actually understand the game and play well.
Sometimes it just pays to be in park because you never know what you might see. Suwanee plays hard, lives well and smiles more, because of the friendly people who live here….come join us.
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