Fanplex could become child safety center

It looks like someone finally has found a use for the failed entertainment complex known as Fanplex.

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard wants to use the long-shuttered facility across from Turner Field for a child safety center.

He’s proposing to pay the Atlanta-Fulton County Recreation Authority just $2,000 a month to lease the 11,000-square-foot space through 2010. That’s $2.18 per square foot on an annualized basis — hardly a payoff for a building the authority spent $2.5 million to build in 2002.

“That’s quite a deal,” said Jim Summerour, a commercial real estate agent who once represented the property when it was for sale. Summerour said commercial leases in the area are typically about five times the rate Howard and the authority are working on.

Still, he said, getting any use for the building at this point is an improvement. It’s been sitting empty for nearly five years.

“It looks like there would be a use for it,” Summerour said. “It’s a hard thing to do. This might generate some activity and something may come from that. When it just sits there vacant, people drive by it and don’t see it anymore.”

The district attorney said he plans to use Fanplex to house a new program he’s creating, the Center for Child Safety. He plans for it to include under one roof a host of agencies that deal with children who are victims of sexual and physical abuse and exploitation. On Wednesday, county commissioners delayed the plan for two weeks to work out some details.

Fulton County Commissioner Nancy Boxill, who chairs the authority, said Howard’s offer was a good idea for the authority, which tried in vain to sell the building for $2.7 million for more than a year.

“I’m delighted for it to be used, not sitting idle while community groups, public and private people consider a redevelopment plan for the entire area,” Boxill said.

Fanplex opened in July 2002 after more than a year of controversy. Critics questioned the $2.5 million price tag and the need for a government-built entertainment complex.

It bled money from Day 1. The authority quickly cut hours, shed employees and cast about for other uses. It lasted less than 18 months. The authority put it up for sale in late 2003 and eventually gave up and took it off the market.

Atlanta leaders hope Fanplex eventually will be swept up in a redevelopment plan for the area that hopes to use a tax-incentive development district to turn nearly 50 acres of ground-level parking around Turner Field into high-rise condominiums, offices and retail shops.