GALLERIA - The Edge Connection, a mixed-use business incubator providing training and development space to various companies, is still searching for new property, executive director Patricia Harris said Friday. Harris was the featured speaker at the Cobb Chamber of Commerce's Cobb Executive Women luncheon, conducted at the Georgian Club.

The company had previously said it would move into a future development on Kennesaw Due West Road, but as a result of a lack of funding to complete the interior space of the property sitting largely vacant, Harris said the company is no longer interested in the building at the 34-acre site.

The company is housed on the campus of Kennesaw State University, though it is not affiliated with the university. Harris said the company's main mission is to help entrepreneurs start successful businesses and in the past three years, 75 percent of businesses that came out of the company's training courses continue to operate.

Work on the $100 million project at the corner of Cobb Parkway and Kennesaw Due West Road had stalled last summer after only a building set to be housed by the Edge Connection was built, but city officials said they hoped the mixed-use development would eventually be completed.

The Columns at Kennesaw development was the first project in Cobb to be financed using controversial PILOT, or payment in lieu of taxes, bonds. The Kennesaw Development Authority issued $13.5 million in 33-year bonds in December 2007 to spur the private redevelopment, with the Edge Connection pledging its intent to move into the space. In a PILOT, the authority takes title to the property and the bonds are used to help pay for infrastructure improvements. While the authority has title, the property is removed from the tax rolls. Instead of paying property taxes, the developer diverts that money to pay off the bonds. When the bonds are paid off, the property returns to the tax rolls.

The Board of Tax Assessors removed the property off the tax rolls last March.

Harris said the company's directors are still looking at various locations within the city of Kennesaw and hope to move into a new facility by the end of this year.

"I think the city would like for us to be located in the city of Kennesaw, and we are particularly interested in a few properties, but nothing has been signed or confirmed yet," Harris said.

The two main properties Harris said the company is looking at are at Town Point near KSU and at 4171 Jiles Road, near the Legacy Park subdivision. The Atlanta Business Chronicle reported the Edge Connection has raised about $1.2 million, and Harris said an additional $580,000 is needed before the company can commit to a location.

For more than a year, the Kennesaw Development Authority and the city of Kennesaw have requested the company return $200,000 and $75,000 in grant money, respectively, given to the company when it had pledged it would move into the Kennesaw Due West Road facility. Harris said the money has not been returned and the city's attorney, Fred Bentley, Jr., said Friday the company and the other two entities are still in negotiations concerning the grant money.

"One proposal they sent us (to keep the grant money), we said 'no

to because it was missing the critical component that the company would remain located in the city of Kennesaw," Bentley said. "Harris told me last week she would have the board contact me within the next week, so I expect to hear from them soon."