Doraville GM plant won't get clean up funds

Funds from a $773 million trust to clean up former GM auto plants will not be used at the closed site in Doraville.

The fund is meant only for properties that Detroit-based General Motors left behind in bankruptcy. The Doraville plant wasn't one of them.

The new GM kept only two former sites -- in Doraville and Tarrytown, N.Y. -- because they have the potential to be sold, said Tom Wilkinson, a GM spokesman.

The Doraville plant still is for sale. A Florida developer recently decided not to buy it after the DeKalb County Commission twice rejected using federal bond money to help turn it into an Atlantic Station-type development.

“We still consider it to be a valuable piece of property and there’s no doubt that the right development will come together,” Wilkinson said.

When GM emerged from bankruptcy, it left dozens of properties in a company called Motors Liquidation, known as “old GM.” The cleanup fund is only for properties being disposed of by “old GM.”

Most of the 89 sites eligible for the funds are in the Rust Belt, and none are in the deep South.