The Douglasville City Council will take up a request by a company believed to be associated with movie producer and actor Tyler Perry to reconfigure property lines affecting 364 acres of undeveloped land.
The property is next to more than 800 acres the company, ETPC Company LLC, acquired earlier this year in southeastern Douglas County, about eight miles southwest of Six Flags Over Georgia.
All of the property, more than 1,100 acres total, was once planned for residential and retail development.
Atlanta attorney Larry M. Dingle, who is representing ETPC in the plat request before City Council, said there are no plans to develop the acreage mentioned in the request. He would not comment further when reached Friday.
ETPC and Tyler Perry could not be reached. ETPC shares the same principal office address and suite number of Tyler Perry Studios LLC and Tyler Perry Studios Casting on 10th Street in west Midtown, according to documents on the Secretary of State and Georgia Department of Economic Development websites.
Kevin Sanders Sr., who lives in the Greystone subdivision about a mile from some of the ETPC’s property, called the company’s acquisitions “very curious.”
Sanders said there has long been speculation that Perry would use some of the land for movie production. “Maybe he’s just a shrewd businessman, buying up real estate,” said Sanders, an insurance adjuster. He added that whatever plans Perry might have for the property, “there would be a lot of quality associated with it.”
Jeff Noles of the Douglasville Development Authority said he has heard of no plans to develop the Douglas County property.
“I would be the first person hear, and no, I have not heard,” Noles told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Friday. “We have not had any discussions.”
It could not be immediately determined whether ETPC has finalized a deal to acquire the 364 acres, which is adjacent to the larger acreage but is part of the Tributary at New Manchester community, east of Mount Vernon Road and just south of Sweetwater Creek State Park. A purchase does not turn up in an online search of Douglas County property records.
Earlier this year ETPC paid $5.4 million for 856 acres just south of Sweetwater Creek State Park and I-20. The area, part of a bankruptcy liquidation, had been envisioned as Villages of Riverview, featuring more than 1,000 single family homes, townhouses and 14 acres of retail. The seller was DBSI Villages at Riverview LLC.
Perry also has other property in metro Atlanta. He opened a studio in southwest Atlanta in 2008 that features sound stages, a 400-seat theater and post-production facilities, according to its website.
The creator of the “House of Payne” TV show and “Madea” movies also has built a 30,000-square-foot mansion on 17 acres off Paces Ferry Road along the Chattahoochee River in northwest Atlanta.
Noles said all plat changes, or changes to property lines, must go before the City Council for approval regardless of how large or small. ETPC’s plat application is dated Nov. 13, this past Wednesday.
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