Are Doraville’s dreams for GM site becoming real?

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

Credit: Hyosub Shin

Credit: Hyosub Shin

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

The city of Doraville hopes a new development team can follow through on their plans to buy the shuttered General Motors plant.

The plant, closed in 2008, has been a vexing challenge for the city, and an initial development team that tried to buy it pulled out in 2010.

City officials announced this week that a team including The Integral Group and Macauley+Schmit plan to acquire the 165-acre site in August and eventually turn it into a mixed-use town center.

Doraville Mayor Donna Pittman said the team has embraced the city’s vision for the site, which includes millions of square feet of office space, research centers, retail, parks and thousands of housing units. No concrete plans are in place, though.

In Friday's print edition and on myajc.com, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution takes a look at the GM plant, a parcel at the intersection of major freeways and MARTA rail, that hasn't yet lived up to its promise.