Closed GM property sold for $50 million

The Doraville GM plant sits idle behind locked gates on Friday, September 7, 2012. (HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM)

Credit: Mark Niesse

Credit: Mark Niesse

The Doraville GM plant sits idle behind locked gates on Friday, September 7, 2012. (HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM)

General Motors sold its shuttered Doraville plant for $50 million, about $10 million less than the automaker’s previous asking price for the property, according to DeKalb County property tax records.

The plant has been closed since 2008, and developers envision turning it into a business and residential district surrounded by parks and green spaces.

An ownership group called Doraville Sixty LLC bought the 140-acre property Sept. 24.

Developers on the project include The Integral Group and Macauley+Schmit, who are working with architecture firm Perkins Eastman and others to transform the area from an unused industrial site to a community destination.

Property records list 30 buildings on the site, some of them built in 1946. Over the years, the factory produced Oldsmobiles, Buick Skylarks, Pontiacs, Chevy Monte Carlos and minivans.

Most of those structures will be demolished to make way for redevelopment.

DeKalb collected $914,770 in property taxes from the site last year as General Motors tried to sell it, according to county documents. Property taxes in previous years ranged from $891,538 to more than $1 million.