DeKalb to partner with developer on GM site

By April Hunt and Ty Tagami

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A Florida developer says DeKalb County will help his company convert the old General Motors property in Doraville into a "true urban center" with homes, restaurants, businesses and offices.

“DeKalb has agreed to work with us, to develop this project for them, for us and for Doraville,” said David Pace, president of New Broad Street Companies.

DeKalb officials refused to discuss their negotiations with the company, but they recently told at least one Doraville city councilman of their plans to acquire the land with New Broad Street.

“It’s been presented to us that this is what the county is going to do, end of story,” said the Doraville councilman, Bob Roche. He said county leaders went out of their way to keep the plans secret, meeting council members in pairs to avoid reaching a quorum that would require public meetings.

The county commission on Tuesday authorized DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis to negotiate a real estate acquisition, but Ellis would not say whether the commission's resolution involved the GM site. The approval could have been for any property, since the county typically buys land -- for libraries, parks or other public facilities -- every couple months.

But Ellis did say he felt duty-bound to restore the jobs lost when GM shut down in Doraville.

"I have a responsibility to restore the 4,000 jobs lost as a result of the closing of that plant," he said soon after the commission's vote.

A county spokesperson later issued a news release that said DeKalb has been in talks with GM and other "stakeholders" about the property for several months. The statement said there have been a variety of proposals, including several with a mixed-use component, but that all of them are "conceptual" and no final decision has been reached.

Redevelopment of the 165-acre site has been a hot topic since GM announced the plant closing in 2007. It would be the largest "brownfield" project in metro Atlanta, meaning it involves the cleanup of a heavy industrial site. By comparison, Atlantic Station in Midtown Atlanta, a former steel mill, is 138 acres.

The developer of Atlantic Station, Jacoby Development of Atlanta, was among four bidders for the GM site that emerged in 2008, but the company dropped out of contention. That left Hines of Houston, the Sembler Co. of St. Petersburg, Fla., and New Broad Street of Orlando.

Sembler last year floated the idea of building a stadium for the Falcons on the site. Pace said New Broad Street wants to blend residential, retail and commercial development there.

“We think it would be a fantastic transit-oriented mixed-use project, either anchored by a sports stadium or not,” Pace said.

Doraville’s comprehensive plan calls for the plant site, bordered by MARTA rail and I-285, to become a mixed-use development. Rumors about the site have been so rampant that city leaders held a “visioning session” earlier this month, to let residents sound off.

The majority of the 40 residents who spoke out or submitted comments were adamant that they didn’t want a stadium, nor did they want the county to take control of the property, whose zoning the city oversees.

“A big concern would be losing out on property taxes if the county owned the property,” said councilwoman Maria Alexander.