CORNELIA, Ga. — Cornelia took another step toward its ambition of becoming the central entertainment and tourist venue for the region, as the city’s Downtown Development Authority signed a lease this week with an area winery and tasting room to take up residence in the city’s downtown.
Sweet Acre Farms Winery, formerly of Alto, burned down in January, but has now signed a lease-to-own deal with the city’s DDA for the long-abandoned brick building on Rosa Parks First Street, abutting soon-to-be Donald Anderson Park, which will also boast an amphitheater and playground.
City Manager Dee Anderson, for whom the park is named, enthusiastically reported the deal Thursday, saying, “We’re obviously excited; this is one of the old warehouses from Habersham Hardware, which was a mainstay business for Cornelia for a long time. It’s been sitting there vacant for probably seven or eight years…It will help bring people back to downtown, supporting the local economy.”
Possible name change coming
Sweet Acre, formerly on Bill Wilson Road across the Highway 365 from Jaemor Farms, had considered going out of business altogether after the devastating fire, said co-owner Matt Vrahiotes, “but all our friends in the wine business kept calling me back.” He said Sweet Acre may change its name and brand for the Cornelia opening; he and his wife, Lindsey, want to broaden its offerings, possibly beyond the fruit wines it now makes and sells.
The Vrahioteses made their wine on premises, almost entirely from locally grown fruit, or fruit from farther off Georgia farms.
There are only few bottles left of pre-fire wines at various area stores, he said, but they include a wide variety made from blackberries, peaches, strawberries, apples, blueberries, watermelon, lemon, lime, and pumpkin, plus a few offerings made from muscadine grapes. Only the blueberries still grow on the former site, he added
Taking on tenants
Said Anderson, “Obviously, our goal is to have every building in downtown occupied,” but the developing restaurant and entertainment scene, exemplified by Community Brew and Tap, Fender’s, and the high-end Italian restaurant Farmacia, makes him optimistic that even more progress is afoot.
Vrahiotes aspires to square his own ambition with the city’s.
“We are hoping to renovate the building and lease to others,” he said, adding he seeks to host “anything that’s going to bring people into the city of Cornelia; a restaurant would be great, any type of entertainment business…anything that will complement the amphitheater. We want this to be a vessel that will encourage other businesses throughout the city.”
More than a business move
Noah Hamil of the DDA added, “My boss, [Community and Economic Development Director] Jessie Owensby, has been wanting to get that winery into Cornelia for almost 10 years; finally, just the right opportunity was presented to them, and they took it.”
Vrahiotes said the opening in Cornelia has meaning that goes beyond just business for Lindsey, their three kids (ages 4 to 9), and himself.
“I lost my father-in-law, Jackie Crumley, a year ago. He was my best friend, we were tight, and he was the one who put his all into helping us out. When the winery burnt down, it was like losing another piece of him.”
“When we open in Cornelia, it will be like getting a piece of him back.”
