Visit Sandy Springs, the city tourism agency, has shuttered its Roswell Road “Welcome Center” and moved its office without an announcement. An expiring lease and a recently proposed new building for the agency and other groups are the reasoning for the moves, Visit Sandy Springs says.
The Welcome Center, which doubled as the Visit Sandy Springs office, was located in the Parkside Shopping Center at 5920 Roswell Road, below the state’s Anne Frank Holocaust exhibit. The center offered visitors information on Sandy Springs and hundreds of brochures on local and statewide destinations and attractions.
The office is now located in the Northside Tower at 6065 Roswell Road, but there is no Welcome Center there, though it remains advertised on signs along state roadways. The Anne Frank exhibit remains in the shopping center.
Explaining the move, Jennifer Cruce, the agency’s executive director, cited the “cultural center” the city has proposed, which would provide space for Visit Sandy Springs offices and a new Welcome Center, among other local groups.
“Our lease was scheduled to end in December, so we decided to go ahead and move and see what happens when and if we have a timeline on that new center,” Cruce said.
The cultural center proposal is in a very early stage.
Visit Sandy Springs had studied in 2016 a potential move due to outgrowing the Welcome Center. Mayor Rusty Paul said during those discussions the city would like to move from renting to owning the building.
Visit Sandy Springs, whose formal name is Sandy Springs Hospitality & Tourism, has a board of directors chaired by Paul and vice-chaired by the head of the Sandy Springs Perimeter Chamber of Commerce, which is another proposed occupant of the new cultural center.