Questions dog the $4B Forge Atlanta project. Neighbors wonder what’s next.
Along a stretch of low-rise businesses in the shadow of the city of Atlanta’s jail, an upstart development team has promised to build a nearly $4 billion campus of futuristic high-rises with seven-figure condos and high-end office space.
Public disclosures showed its parent company reported no revenue and had less than $6,000 in cash on hand a few months before the Development Authority of Fulton County in October gave initial approval to a $10 million property tax break. Funding for the deal, the company said, would come at least in part from cryptocurrency investors.
Now, about seven months later, questions about the Forge Atlanta project continue to grow.
The developer, Forge Atlanta Asset Management, is a newcomer that hasn’t built anything of this scale. The company’s parent firm, Webstar Technology Group, is a thinly traded public company with shares valued on Friday afternoon at less than a dime. And despite pledging it has the wherewithal to deliver such an ambitious effort, the company has needed to negotiate extensions with the project site’s owner to avoid missing financial deadlines.
Last month, the company disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing it defaulted on its $33.7 million mortgage that it used to acquire the 10-acre project site along Whitehall Street. The news, which was first reported by real estate news outlet Bisnow, has only intensified the doubts many neighborhood leaders have about the project’s future.
“It’d be a challenging project for anybody,” Kyle Kessler, the chair of the area’s neighborhood planning unit, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “And for a development team that doesn’t appear to have the experience at this scale, it’s that much more difficult to believe that there’s the capacity to pull it off.”
Forge Atlanta Asset Management and Webstar contend their development plans are feasible. Separately, Russell McCall, the property owner who issued the loan, said he never formally declared the default and has agreed to extend its maturity date to Oct. 1.
“We are pleased with the progress of these discussions and remain committed to the Forge Atlanta development,” Forge Atlanta Asset Management told the AJC in a statement.
The company declined interview requests and declined to answer a list of questions from the AJC regarding the project’s future.
What is Forge Atlanta?
This isn’t the first development pitched for this property.
On the border of Castleberry Hill and South Downtown, it was the former headquarters of food distribution business Gourmet Foods International, which is owned by McCall.
In 2021, a different upstart developer, Urbantec Development Partners, signed agreements to acquire the land for a high-rise life sciences campus called Forge Atlanta. The plan included offices, apartments, retail, a hotel and an entertainment venue. But the land was never developed and went through foreclosure in March 2023.
Webstar last May announced its intentions to buy the site and restart Urbantec’s effort, launching Forge Atlanta Asset Management to oversee the project.
Webstar’s website cites other business ventures, namely mining rights it has in Nevada and a proposed $650 million amusement park called Bear Village Resort in Commerce, nearly 70 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta. The latter project fell apart shortly after being pitched, according to Bisnow.
Webstar owns 80% of the development venture, while Urbantec owns the remaining 20%, according to an SEC filing.
Steve Yazell, Castleberry Hill Neighborhood Association president, said neighbors have been waiting for the site to be developed. It’s a rare opportunity for high-rise development that wouldn’t impact Castleberry Hill’s historic district, which lies on the west side of downtown’s railroad tracks.
But Webstar has yet to engage the neighborhood, Yazell said, leaving many questions unanswered about site design and timelines.
“We’ve never had much faith and never got any engagement there from the developer or their representatives, even after attempts,” he said.
Kessler said the lack of communication is unlike downtown’s other large projects.
Developers of Centennial Yards, the $5 billion redevelopment of the Gulch near Mercedes-Benz Stadium, have routinely provided updates and met with neighborhood groups after its city-backed incentive package and complicated real estate transaction was complete, he said. That’s also been the case for the owners of South Downtown, a series of century-old buildings being transformed to house startups, restaurants and residential lofts.
“They have been very communicative, both with the broader public and on social media. And not in necessarily just pitching for investment,” Kessler said of South Downtown’s leadership.
“Beyond the marketing pitch that’s there for investors, there has not been engagement (from Webstar) with the immediate neighbors or the broader community,” he continued.
Questions about the developer
Forge Atlanta renderings show futuristic and twisting skyscrapers that tower over Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which sits a mile north of the project site.
The developer promises more than 2,300 luxury condominiums, 950 hotel rooms and more new office space than downtown has seen in a generation.
Bisnow in September published an investigation on Webstar’s questionable track record delivering its promised developments.
In reporting that raised concerns with securities law experts, Bisnow detailed government filings riddled with spelling errors, executives with unverifiable resumes and connections to a developer fined by the SEC for allegedly defrauding its investors. Webstar’s executives denied those allegations.
The company has churned through auditors, employing at least four since 2023. Among those, Forge notified the SEC in April that it has hired a new one to finish its 2025 financial review. Its unaudited financial results, which were submitted to the SEC, show no revenue for 2024 or 2025.
Webstar ended 2025 with $4,251 in cash reserves.
The company’s 2025 annual report also disclosed that it may not continue as a “going concern,” which is an accounting term that means whether a business has enough money and resources to continue operating for at least 12 months.
The company reported a net loss of $1.3 million in 2025, following $4.5 million in losses the year prior.
Webstar closed its deal on the site in December, entering into a fast-maturing mortgage with McCall. It is typical for commercial real estate loans for development projects to take years to mature or come due, but this loan was scheduled to be paid off in mere months.
Since announcing the Forge Atlanta project, the company’s stock has primarily been valued at less than 8 cents per share. Its share price peaked in January at about 20 cents.
The company has pitched its project on social media and its website, stating that investors can buy a stake in the Forge Atlanta development through cryptocurrency assets, a form of crowdsourcing for the project. Webstar news releases say it is “opening the door for residents, investors and communities to participate in Atlanta’s growth,” while Forge Atlanta’s website touts that the project is expected to turn billions of dollars in profit over the next two decades.
‘Pushing the goal post’
In October, the Fulton development authority board gave preliminary approval to award Forge Atlanta Asset Management a $10 million tax break for the project’s first phase, which has an estimated value of $756 million.
That phase includes a 300-room hotel, meeting space and 60,500 square feet of retail and entertainment space. Condos, which are included in the first phase, are not part of the tax abatement.
DAFC, which also goes by Develop Fulton, still has to hold a second vote to finalize the agreement. Kessler spoke in opposition of the pending tax break, saying it may not risk taxpayer funds but does lend the authority’s reputation to a developer of questionable wherewithal.
The authority said in a statement that it “evaluates every project, recognizing that complex developments can often encounter challenges that may impact their path forward.”
“If prior to closing, a developer does not meet required conditions, any incentives that could be facilitated by Develop Fulton will not go into effect and the transaction will not proceed,” the statement continued. “The Forge Atlanta project is no different.”
Kessler said he wondered if there’s a missed opportunity pursuing the Forge Atlanta plan.
“They continue to sort of be pushing the goal post further and further back to allow them more time to raise the capital and make this project happen,” Kessler said of Forge Atlanta.
“At what point is there an opportunity cost with this land being tied up with this prospective project that has maybe a lesser likelihood of going forward?”
About the Author
Zachary Hansen, a Georgia native, covers economic development and commercial real estate for the AJC. He's been with the newspaper since 2018 and enjoys diving into complex stories that affect people's lives.
