General Motors is evaluating bids from developers hoping to acquire the auto maker's sprawling Doraville assembly plant, which is closing in September.

General Motors said Thursday that it has selected four finalists who will compete to purchase the plant.

The finalists, who the company declined to identify, are expected to submit "best and final" offers by mid-September, said Dan Flores, a GM spokesman. The company plans to select a winner by November. The deadline for submitting offers was July 10.

The company announced three years ago that it planned to close the 60-year-old plant as part of a companywide downsizing sparked by sluggish sales and heated foreign competition.

The plant now employs about 1,000 people, down from 3,000 employees two years ago.

Company officials say the property, which sprawls over 165 acres, would make an ideal location for a mixed-use development, perhaps with shops, offices and homes. Local officials are hoping the redevelopment could be even more grand than Atlantic Station, the giant live-work-play development in Midtown.

The property has much going for it —- it's perhaps the largest available parcel inside the Perimeter. It's located near several major highways and has direct access to MARTA via the Doraville rail station.

—-Paul Donsky

Perdue reappoints Hudson

Gov. Sonny Perdue reappointed Douglasville developer Walter A. Hudson to the Board of Natural Resources. Hudson, 46, is president of Exxell Developers Inc. He was appointed to the board in 2001 by then-Gov. Roy Barnes and has served as chairman.

—-Stacy Shelton

A hot spot for apartments

The Perimeter Center area remains a hot spot for apartment construction, according to an upcoming report by industry analyst Dale Henson Associates.

More than 2,600 apartments have opened recently or are under construction in the business district around Perimeter Mall, according to Henson's Atlanta Apartment Pipeline Report, which is due out July 28. Henson Associates was formed in 1970 to advise developers and investors.

"It's amazing," Robert Ito, a consultant with Dale Henson Associates, said of the Perimeter's rate of apartment construction. "But the units are being absorbed."

It's all about access to jobs, Ito said.

The apartments are close to an estimated 150,000 jobs in the Perimeter Center business district. And they're near Ga. 400, which is a pipeline to jobs in the Alpharetta business parks, Ito said.

—- David Pendered