A deal is nearly complete for a development group to buy the shuttered General Motors plant in Doraville.
Representatives for the purchaser, a joint venture known as IMS, jumped the gun Friday morning with an announcement that said the group had closed on the deal. But in a statement later Friday, GM officials said the closing isn’t final.
The delay in the closing is not a sign of trouble for the property sale, an IMS representative said.
IMS, a development team that includes Atlanta-based firms The Integral Group and Macauley+Schmit and Houston-based financial partner CAMS, declined to disclose the purchase price of the 165-acre property. GM also declined to provide a purchase price, but the automaker has previously said its asking price was about $60 million.
The 2008 closing of the GM plant near the Perimeter and I-85 wiped out more than a third of Doraville’s employment base. The hulking plant has been seen as both a shadow over the north DeKalb city of about 8,500 people and a tantalizing redevelopment site near two interstates and MARTA rail.
Previous attempts to sell the site to developers haven’t panned out.
The property has been under contract since July 2013, and Integral has been in discussions about the site for about two years. The developers will announce a planner later this month, and demolition of the structure will take about eight months, according to a news release.
The Integral team has described a desire to build a “walkable” and “mixed-use community” tied to MARTA rail, but it has not developed a formal plan. The GM plant has long been seen as a possible site for a corporate relocation as well as a new downtown for Doraville.
“We all recognize that the purchase of this property from General Motors provides a chance to connect dots that can help to unite portions of our region. So, now the real work begins,” Integral Chairman and CEO Egbert Perry said in the release.
City officials have previously said the Integral team has embraced the city’s master plan for the site, including millions of square feet of office space, along with research centers, shops, parks and housing. It could be bigger than the redevelopment of the former steel mill in Midtown into Atlantic Station.
“We have been down the road with many other potential partners since 2008, and, finally, we have made it to the finish line,” Doraville Mayor Donna Pittman said in the release.
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